GRIZZLY BEAR ATTACK pt.1

Grizzly Bears have a bite strength of 1200PSI, strong enough to crush a bowling ball in their mouth!  On October 13th, 2018, Bob Legasa was in the mouth of an angry grizzly bear while hunting elk in South West Montana... a week before a planned trip to take his daughter hunting for the first time.  Find out what kept him alive and it may save your life one day as well. 

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Grizzly Attack Survivor - Bob Legasa pt. 1
The TEETH Podcast - Season 1, Episode 2

Note: The TEETH Podcast has been created for the ear and is meant to be heard. If you are able, we encourage you to listen to the audio, which includes emotions, music and, sound effects that do not translate to print. We generate transcripts that we hope make for enjoyable reading using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors. Please confirm the corresponding audio before quoting in print.

INTRO
Jeremy:

For as long as humans have existed, we have been telling stories around campfires. For entertainment, but more importantly to pass on essential survival skills from one generation to the next. It’s why we are still around. Skills such as how to have shelter from the elements or  how to obtain sustainable food.

Stories are so much more powerful than just straight instruction.  For instance, “Hunt with a partner, your life might depend on it” is great advice but might get lost in the distractions of trying to…oh you know….survive and continue the human race, but an edge-of-your-seat story– no one is going to forget that! 

Bob Legasa will tell you he is fortunate to do just that– hand down knowledge to the next generation by combining things that he has learned from his elders with his own experiences.  Today he is telling us of a specific experience of what happened to him on the 13th of October, 2018 in southwest Montana while hunting. The story of how he survived a grizzly bear attack. 

This is the TEETH podcast: wild animal attack stories firsthand from the survivors.  I am Jeremy Carberry, a wilderness kayak guide, animal handler, the survivor of a few animal attacks myself, and… your host. 

I met up with Bob over the winter in his hometown of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

 When we arrived at a park beside a lake there was some snow on the ground but that didn’t deter a few people who were jet skiing and tubing on the lake!  The air temperature was in the low 30’s and I imagine the water had to be around the same. They were wearing wetsuits…but i was dry and wearing two coats and I was cold.  I’m not exaggerating when I say if the water was even a little bit colder they would have had to trade the jet ski out for ice skates….so If you hear a little bit of motor noise in the background that’s just Northern Idaho people jet skiing in February….

2:51
AERIAL SKIING CAREER

Bob:

My name is Bob Legasa, I live here in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. I'm just an avid outdoorsman, I live and breathe for being in the mountains.

Jeremy: You’ve been fortunate enough to spend pretty much all of your professional life outdoors.

Bob: Pretty much, yeah. I was stunt double for a movie called Hot Dog, a cult movie for the ski world. That was back in 1983 and that was pretty much the start of it. ‘85-’86 through the early 2000’s, I was pretty active with traveling the world and doing aerial acrobatics on skis at different places all over the world.

Indoors and most the time on snow, but there were times that we were jumping on artificial ramps and airbags at convention centers for trade shows, NFL halftime event entertainment. 
One of my biggest claims to fame on that would have been– we had a jump that was 90 ft. long. It was basically like a truck and trailer in the Rose Bowl parade. 

Jeremy: Like, as the trailer was moving?

Bob: We were on the trailer, which was a ski jump, and we would land on the driving part of the truck. You know what the Rose Bowl parade looks like– it's thousands and thousands of roses.

Jeremy: They build bleachers for the audience.

Bob: A couple scary instances on that. 

If the truck was going slightly down a hill, then all of a sudden your ramp became like a wall. You could almost free fall, or if it turned around the corner like the famous Colorado Blvd turn, where all the bleachers are, and all the newscasters. My buddy almost went at that time and he probably would have missed the entire truck and trailer, or the entire landing hill and landed on the street. It was pretty fun. 

Jeremy: In aerial acrobatics, there is danger involved. 

Paralysis, broken back– that type of thing can happen, and a couple of my good friends are paralyzed from that. Things can happen. If you were to talk to most every athlete that I know that has had an injury that has been career-ending or, even worse. More than likely they're going to say that they probably wouldn't have changed anything. They probably would have changed something that day, but you know it's a danger or a thrill that that we live for.

Back in the mid/late '80s, I got into television and have been in front of a camera doing different things for news and national TV stuff. I had a few different national TV syndicated skiing shows– like ½ hour shows, and then I did things for the regional news Northwest called “Ski Tips” 

I give people tips on skiing. Skiing and snowboarding. 

Jeremy: So it’s like the weather report and then they also have ski tips. That’s what happens in the Pacific Northwest, that’s great. 

Bob: A little minute, minute 30. What to do here. 

6:47

ELK HUNTING

Bob grew up hunting, but once he got involved with professional skiing in the 80’s, he didn't really have much time to hunt. Years later, when his travel schedule slowed down, he got back into it as a way of being in the mountain wilderness that he loves so much.

Bob:  In the 90’s I started really getting out and spending a lot of time in the month of September bow hunting. It was a whole new world– adrenaline-filled extreme skiing. So when an elk is bugling and screaming at you and you’re trying to get in close– within 40 yards, it’s pretty challenging, and like I said: adrenaline-filled. 

Jeremy: 

For people who don't know, why is it important in September?

Bob: Well, that is the kind of the mating for elk– what we call the rut– which goes into a full swing typically middle of September through the end of September. At that time the bulls are bugling, they're gathering up their harem, they might start off at the beginning of September where they have like one or two cows, and then they'll fight other bulls and take their cows. Next thing you know we got a bull– what we call a ‘herd bull’– that might have 20-30 cows with him. All these other what we call ‘satellite bulls’, maybe two or three that are hanging around the outskirts trying to move in on this guy and steal a cow. So that is what September is about for me– it's about elk hunting and that frenzy with the elk rut.

I do video work, so I do work for an outfitter over in Montana, and I put together some of his marketing videos– why you should come here you know we've got elk, we've got beautiful mountains, we've got rafting, etc. When I go in back country skiing, I have an avalanche transceiver. So I go to these backcountry lodges, go on a heli trip or something like that. The first night you get there, they play a DVD on how to be prepared when you're in the backcountry on snow. How to operate your transceiver, how to go send/receive, how to search for somebody, how to do this stuff. I told Greg, we should do that for the clients to come here to Montana guide service on how to use bear spray. My hunting partner’s name is Greg Gibson. He’s from this area and I’ve known him for 30+ years. He's a skier– that's how I met him– and we hunt well together. We both like traveling over to Montana to this one place to hunt. It's a pretty long term relationship we've had hunting together.

So it was the beginning of September, we're back from in the afternoon from hunting. We had a can of the bear spray and I shot the video. I had written a script, and made Greg read the script over and over and over and over again on camera. He had to do each one of those lines 3-4 times, pop the safety off and do it again. ‘Read this, this is how you do this…’

So that happened the first few weeks in September, and it was a month later that the attack happened, so it was ingrained in his head.

10:34

BROWN BEAR RANGE

Jeremy Narration:

The brown bear can be found throughout the northern hemisphere of the world, including Europe, Asia, and North America. The North American version of the brown bear is known as the grizzly. The original range of the grizzly was from Alaska to Mexico, covering the Western half of the continent as far east as what is now Minnesota. No one was taking an official census hundreds of years ago, but the experts say there were probably ~100,000 grizzlies living across 48 states. Nowadays, there is also not an official grizzly population count either, given that they have a tendency of not staying in one place and live in some pretty remote locations. It's estimated that today there are less than 2,000 grizzlies in the lower 48. That's a population decrease of about 98% if these estimations are accurate.

We do know for certain that grizzlies have been pushed out of almost all the areas where they once lived along the western half of the continent. Now they are only located in four states in the lower 48: Washington, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana– which is where Bob was attacked.

In these four states, it's usually only small pockets of land that host grizzlies. Because of this grizzlies in the lower 48 are a protected species listed as “threatened”.

Bob: 

September, like I said, we spend a lot of time hunting in Montana. We didn't have any success. My hunting partner Greg and I had lots of great opportunities but never were able to harvest an elk during that time. 

Jeremy: And every time you get close– I go out for lobster and I like fishing and stuff– every time you get close to getting something and you miss… you just want it all the more.

Bob: Oh yeah, I mean it's that type of drive of not only succeeding but I love elk. I love elk meat. I have a freezer full, hopefully I get a freezer full every year so it can last me through.

It’s usually around August when we're getting low, and it’s like whoa, we’ve got to make this happen. 

Jeremy: It's more than an adrenaline rush for you, it's actually the way that you provide for yourself and your family (partially).

Bob: We eat a lot of elk. My wife not so much, but my kids, they grew up eating it and they love it and now it's becoming part of their lifestyle and what they eat every day.

Block chain central bank whatever

Jeremy: After coming up empty-handed for the first part of the season, Bob and his hunting partner Greg headed back to Montana…

Bob: The last week of October for like 3 or 4 days, it was on a Friday afternoon, we went out and we located a bunch of elk. We thought, okay we're not going to be able to get in on them tonight, due to wind and all the eyes from all the cows. There were probably 50-60 cows around so we thought, okay we'll go in the morning and we'll come up with the game plan of how to make our approach.

15:12

THE SAGEBRUSH

So that next morning, we went back and parked our truck down the road, probably about a mile away from where we saw all the elk. We drove back in there on a little dirt road somewhat close to the base of the mountain and like I said the mountain is sparsely vegetated. It goes up a couple thousand feet, which you go through some timber as you go higher. The lower part is sagebrush– tall sage– which is kind of like walking through a cornfield. It's like a corn maze, you can't really see over it, there's openings and then it gets really tight in spots. It's pretty intimidating if you don't know what's in there, and what are in there a lot a grizzly bears.

16:07

GRIZZLY DIET

Jeremy: Contrary to popular belief, grizzlies are omnivores and primarily eat plants. Of the meat that grizzlies do eat, most are insects!  Something I just learned is that bears love to eat moths– the ones that fly into lights not the giant one that hates Godzilla. A grizzly can eat 40,000 normal-sized moths a day!

Even though grizzlies are primarily foragers, eating plants and insects, they definitely have the strength, speed and intelligence to take down very large prey. And they do!  A full-grown grizzly bear can run over 35 mph. That's more than the speed limit of your average residential street. Also has a bite strength of 1200 PSI– that's strong enough to crush a bowling ball!

Also has 4 inch long claws on each paw and the strength of about 6 full grown men, which means one swipe of a grizzly bear's paw is strong enough to break the spine and instantly paralyze a mountain lion or a wolf, or literally knock a human's head right off of their body in one swipe. I'm glad they like to eat moths. All right back to Bob and Greg hunting elk in Montana as they make their way through the really tall sagebrush.

Bob: What are in there a lot are grizzly bears.  They like to hang in one particular area– that’s one of the reasons we like to wait until it's light, and get up on the side of the hill so we could be elevated above the sagebrush.

We made our way down a quarter of a mile and it was snowing heavily, it was dumping big pancake-sized wet flakes. You would put your binoculars on and it would be impossible to see anything, but we could hear the elk out pretty much where we had left them the night before.

[Elk Sounds]

We skirted the side of the hill for probably quarter of a mile and we could hear the elk what we thought was maybe a couple hundred yards below us. We looked over towards that direction, probably about 40 yards away was another clump of sagebrush. We thought, let's make our way over to that, get positioned in that area, and see what happens.

Jeremy: When you're in the sagebrush are you using that as an advantage?  The elk will be less likely to spot you?

Bob: We're going through because we have to… that's the way from point A to point B. It's also concealment for us. If I was in a big redwood forest, I would be skirting alongside, trying to get next to trees and brush, using whatever I can as camouflage.

We got down into an area where we were probably 100 yards away from the elk. We thought, if we move forward about another 40 yards over to this next clump of sagebrush we’ll be close within bow range, we might be able to sneak in a little bit more to get a visual on them.

19:48

THE ATTACK

We made about three steps and heard a growl, and a cub stood up and reared and ran away.  She was probably about 12-15 yards from us, anywhere from 40-50 ft. 

Jeremy: In all of your years hunting, you've seen grizzlies in the wild before?

Bob: I have… nothing that close.  As soon as she reared up and growled and ran the other way, mom was beelining straight for me– she’s probably 40-50 ft away!

Jeremy: What does that look like?  How would you explain that experience?

Bob: Imagine…what it would be like to have a rabid St Bernard coming at you, well, a grizzly’s probably about four times that size! She and the cub were tucked right around some sagebrush, more than likely working in on those same elk that we were hunting.

So we surprised them because the wind was in our face– ideal for hunting– and we were walking in that direction so she didn't smell us and it was snowing heavily so it was very, very quiet. We scared them, they scared us

ALICIA PAUSE POINT 8:54am 4/26/22 grood night I love you

21:15 

…So the cub rears up, the mom beelines straight for me…

When she started charging, we did kind of what you're supposed to do… raise our arms and yell “BEAR” and try and look big and I realized that wasn't working… A lot of times they'll run like two or three steps and stop and then jump up and down kind of like, you know, “they're going to get you” well she kept motoring at me…. so fast

nanoseconds

In a whole ordeal from seeing her to where she was on me was probably not more than 3 seconds wow I basically just kind of stood my ground and put my arms up like I was going to take a hit from a you know from a football player or or you know I was in a bar fight and she basically want to say jumped but weird up and tackled me

Luckily I was already kind of moving back little I was backpedaling and I think that I tripped and so her hitting me and my tripping I think we're pretty much at the same time so in a sense soft on the blow she was on top of me had my arm and her and her mouth and she swatting and I'm blocking blocking these punches best that I can and I'm kicking and I'm yelling and all of a sudden she lets go and I think thank God and she tears upp drops down on my other side which is now my right

Right side and her head is literally two three feet away from my head same elevation now mouth is open and I'm looking at her and out of the corner of my eye I can see Greg over right behind me probably another three to five feet any blaster with the bear spray she retreats and it Dawn something at that time that he sprayed her the first time that's why she released me oh wow

She went for him and what's the new threat so she went for him and when he sprayed her the second time she immediately retreated and started running back in the stage where her cub was 

whenever she was running at you you were thinking okay I hope this is a bluff, then upon impact you realize this is not a bluff

For impacts realized not a bluff ing this is the real deal and I was hoping. That she would just like run right by me and just like you know she realized when she was there that you know it's not a good thing to go after humans 

JEREMY: You said that you were fighting back.  So certain animals you're supposed to curl up in a ball and play dead… grizzly bear, you've been told or you've learned that you want to fight back?

Bob: You're supposed to, if they're on you, yeah you're supposed to cover your head and play dead.  okay I mean that is it but this is literally you know just maybe a couple of seconds it's just instinct yeah so it didn't it didn't escalate much further where I had to think that and I mean I would have I would have done if it would have gone further I would have been grabbing my pistol I would have been grabbing my bear spray and trying to you know minimize that attack I did not want to reach down and grab my pistol which I had on my chest I didn't want to have my hands bound over here and I didn't want to go for the beer spray where my hands were down at my hip and have my head my face totally exposed where I couldn't you know protect myself

Well that was it I mean I'm talking this is literally like I said 3 seconds for the whole thing from her original from her seeing us to being on me so you know the second half of all this going through my mind and then all of a sudden realizing that it's not a bluff charge and the next second and a half of like trying to cover up and be prepared for for impact hasn't even really caught up to what's going on with the situation she retreats back into it back in the sagebrush and now it it I realize you know what has happened this whole time with you know Greg sprayer and at that point I'm really can't see much now cuz my eye is is just watering and I've got blood running down my face. 

 I have she has he has bit in my arm and she had that in her in her mouth and she had released it and you know if she was swat at me so the blood that was that was or I couldn't see was my eyes were watering from the bear spray and she clawed me and and scratched my eye my face was scratched up where she had actually cut in with her flaws cut the skin and so blood was dripping down my face I couldn't see from you know combination of the bear spray and you know them watering from from her claws.

And at that point when she was retreating I thought I need to be prepared in case she comes back for a second attack.

So I'm on my on my butt and I'm pulling the beer spray out and I'm trying to get the safety off I've got gloves on from it was snowing yeah yeah and I spray myself I mean I'm talking man 

But it was enough to nail in the coffin so I can't see hardly a damn thing it's just it it's kind of like in a movie when someone's you know going out from you know being being drugged that's what my vision was like and I was still fully conscious Greg got some collateral

In our face the wind was in our face

Blue in a sprayed into the wind got the bear but it blew back in his face as well as hit me hit the bear you know it did what it was supposed to do but you know there is residual but we're both here today 

Jeremy: bear spray is about three times more potent than pepper spray or mace and is better at deterring bears than bullets!

Bob

The bears we have no idea where we are in the sagebrush it's like one of those scary movies creeping around the house and you don't know what's going to happen

What we felt yeah probably about 10 minutes went by of just you know like oh man what's happening you know throwing snow on our eyes and and it was at that point Greg said put your face in the snow on the big sagebrush in the snow

It's cooling so I did that and I realized it I can't see and it's definitely quiet if I'm going to die it's going to be like right now or I don't see anything and I realized at that point I got to fight for this and pull my head up and started basically holding open my eyes with my fingers so that I can see

30:08

RECAP

Bob has just survived being knocked down, hit, clawed and… bit by a grizzly bear but because of all of the adrenaline and the pepper spray burning his eyes, he has yet to fully realize the extent of his injuries.  The bear ran off but there is still so much more to this story that we are breaking it up into two parts.  

- The two hunters are by no means out of danger…  

- They are still in the sagebrush 

- The hospital is over an hour drive away

- The snow is coming down harder now and quickly developing into a blizzard

- Also…back in Idaho, Bob’s daughter is and has been looking forward to going elk hunting with her dad for the first time…they have a trip scheduled for the following week…and Bob really wants to pass his knowledge and skills on to his daughter the same way it was passed on to him….and the generations before… going all the way back to the first humans…

In the next episode we find out exactly how strong Bob’s will is to live and why…Join our email list at theTEETHpod.com and you’ll be the first to know when that episode is out.  Bob also gave me a crazy looking photo that was taken soon after the attack… I’ll send it to you after you sign up for the email list.  It’s a mailing list where I send out a little more info on each of these amazing survival stories.

31:41

OUTRO

the TEETH 

is co-produced by Scot Nery and myself. Music is by Davey Chedwiggen and Joshua Lopez.  I am your host, Jeremy Carberry.   I hope you find some time to get outside and enjoy the wildlife today…even if it’s just some birds in your backyard… but as always please be sure to give the wildlife the space and respect it deserves.

Thankyou for listening, subscribing and telling a friend about this show.  and seriously…. get outside today