Hathaway Pines man survives harrowing ursine encounter

 Mike Stricklin was struck with tears and a slight wheeze Thursday as he recounted being chased, pounced on, sniffed and clawed by a momma black bear before she left him huddled in a ball.

The incident, Stricklin said, happened late Wednesday afternoon on a Stanislaus National Forest road outside of Avery.
  

“I thought I was going to die,” said Stricklin, 39, from his home in Hathaway Pines on Thursday.

About 5 p.m. Wednesday, Stricklin took his one-year-old dog, Dakota, for a walk on a familiar forest road off Sheep Ranch Road.

About a mile into the stroll, a full-grown black bear postured up on its hind legs from behind a manzanita bush just to the side of the trail, Stricklin said.

A bear cub ran through the bush to the other side of the road — leaving Stricklin between the momma bear and her baby.

The bear let out a roar.

“I thought, ‘This is not happening,’ ” he said.

At that point, Stricklin ran for his life.

“She was running right behind me — right there,” he said.

After he exhausted himself approximately 300 yards down the road, he said, he dove to the ground, curled into a ball and held his breath.

“She sniffed me,” he said. “I could hear her breath.”

“I thought: ‘Should I start fighting? Should I stay tucked into a ball?’ I expected to get pushed and tossed around. I was waiting for it to happen.”

Eventually, Stricklin had to take a breath, he said. As his body heaved, the bear slapped him back to the ground.

Moments later, she was gone. Stricklin looked up and saw Dakota a few feet away and the baby bear scamper down a hillside. The momma bear was gone.

Stricklin credits the bear’s savvy for knowing he wasn’t a threat, and Dakota for staying nearby as the reasons the attack did not turn bloodier or, worse, deadly.

On Thursday, the lower right side of Stricklin’s back had a bear paw-sized  bruise and gashes from where she’d slapped him to the ground when he took a breath. His upper back also had a gash. His knees were scraped up from diving to the ground.   

“I’m sore but lucky,” he said.

Kirsten Macintyre, spokeswoman for the California Department of Fish and Game, said that from preliminary observations, the scratches and bruises on Stricklin look to have been made by a bear. But, she added, a game warden will do a full investigation on the alleged attack.

For now, nothing will be done to the bear, especially after it showed restraint in allowing Stricklin to survive.

“It’s a no-harm, no-foul situation,” she said.

Macintyre recommends that people in the area visit Fish and Game’s Web site about black bear encounters at www.dfg.ca.gov/keepme-wild/bear.html.

Since 1980, there have been 12 reported black bear attacks in California, according to Fish and Game’s records. This is the first reported attack in the Stanislaus National Forest.

Stricklin said he doesn’t want anything done to the momma bear.

“I was on her turf,” he said. “She’s just protecting her cub.”