Gabrielle Markel's Brown Bear Attack

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Welcome back to Scary Bear Attacks! Today’s episode takes us to a place very near to the location of our prior episode. On the Kenai Peninsula in the south part of Alaska, the Kenai River is fed by Kenai Lake and Skilak Lake and runs to the brim with salmon at certain parts of the summer. The mountains to the southeast give way to rolling hills which turn into a broad forested plain just before dropping into the Cook Inlet. Where the mountains turn into rolling hills is where Skilak Lake is positioned. The peaks here don’t soar as high as in other locations in the state but climb to just below 5000 feet. The power of nature is felt here twice a day as the Cook Inlet is filled, then emptied when the tides roll in and out. Birch, hemlock, and spruce trees provide an emerald shroud over the land to shelter the huge moose that trod the trails. There are many smaller animals here including foxes, porcupines, hares, lynx, and black bears, but as they seek the salmon in the streams, it is the huge brown bears that are most dangerous.
At around 4:30 PM on August 4th, 2015, 20-year-old Gabrielle Markel was getting ready to go for a jog with her coworker and friend, 26-year-old Kaitlin Haley. The two were employees of Alaska Wildland Adventures Lodge, which is located on the southern shore of Skilak Lake.
Gabrielle’s stepdad, Kirk Hoessle was the president of the lodge and hired the girls to their 9-person staff for the season. The lodge has 20 guests at a time, at most, and provides its visitors with a high-quality vacation experience without compromising comfortable accommodations, according to its website. It is an ecotourism destination that appeals to those in favor of learning about and preserving nature and resources. Each season the lodge staff and guests complete bear awareness training which instructs them on how to be bear aware.
As the young women donned their jogging shoes they planned out their route for their run. The trails along the lake passed near the lodge and made easy access to trails of various difficulty. They chose to run up the Cottonwood Creek Trail which ran directly south of the lodge and climbed a few hundred feet along its course.
As the salmon splashed their way up the stream, the women covered the better part of a mile surrounded by the beauty of the forest and the fresh mountain air. As they came up to a sharp turn in the trail they heard an ominous sound in the brush only a few feet away from them.
Now, a part of bear awareness training is focused on how to handle a bear at close range and how to utilize bear spray to protect yourself. Gabrielle was carrying bear spray with her on this jog and had practiced using it, just in case she needed it.
It isn’t clear whether the bear was flushed from cover by the joggers or emerged from it to attack them, but somehow the massive brown bear met them on the trail. Gabrielle pulled her bear spray up as the bear closed in on her but was unable to dispense the irritant before the bear attacked her. It focused its anger on Gabrielle knocked her to her back and bit and clawed her.
Kaitlin could only watch as the bear huffed and growled as it stood over Gabrielle. She knew she was powerless to defend her own life, let alone her friend's life, and immediately dashed back toward the lodge to find help. The last she had seen of Gabrielle was of her lying on her back with the bear obscuring her with its massive body.
As Kaitlin sprinted toward the lodge, I can only imagine the fear and terrible thoughts that went through her mind. She used them for fuel to propel her down the trail, as she arrived in record time.
A small rescue team was quickly assembled and headed up Cottonwood Creek Trail to try to save Gabrielle. They wouldn’t have to search too hard for her, because a few hundred yards from where Caitlin had left her, Gabrielle was now slowly walking toward them.
Gabrielle was bloody and beaten up but was able to communicate. The group looked around to see if the bear was following her, but couldn’t find it. The rescuers assisted Gabrielle back to the lodge and started working on cleaning her wounds and stopping the bleeding. There were several bite wounds on Gabrielle’s head, back, and arm along with several deep scratches from the bear's claws, but nothing immediately life-threatening. They knew that injuries from a bear attack can be misleading though, and appear to be not as serious as they are.

Видео Gabrielle Markel's Brown Bear Attack канала Scary Bear Attacks