A hiker was hospitalized after an Anchorage Alaska hiking bear encounter on a South Anchorage trail above Bear Valley on Saturday. Anchorage police, Anchorage fire departments, and Alaska State Troopers responded at about 5:30 p.m. after the bear made brief contact with one of the hikers and moved on.
Gina Romero, the Anchorage police spokesperson, said officers found the woman about a half-mile up the trail from Kenai Terrace Road and Brewsters Drive. Police said her injuries were not life-threatening, and firefighters helped her off the trail before taking her to the hospital.
Fish and Game response
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game said the encounter was most likely a surprise encounter at close range. Cyndi Wardlow, the Southcentral regional supervisor for the state Division of Wildlife Conservation, said, "This was likely a surprise encounter at close range, especially with the high winds and low visibility from the trail in this area,"
The bear emerged from a dense stand of alder trees on a narrow, switchback trail uphill from Bear Valley, in an area that borders Chugach State Park. The hikers were with three dogs, and all three dogs were off leash at the time. Fish and Game said high winds and inclement weather may have increased the chance that the bear was surprised by the hikers and their dogs, even if they were making noise.
Bear activity in Hillside
Fish and Game officials have received multiple reports of brown bears in the Hillside neighborhood areas this summer. The agency is putting up signs and flagging at trailheads in the area to warn people about the recent bear activity. It has not received reports of aggressive animals or bears behaving unusually in the Bear Valley area this summer.
A police department drone spotted a single brown bear on a nearby hillside, and a moose kill has been reported nearby. The hikers' dog was later found unhurt by a different group of hikers and returned home.
Recent bear injuries
The Saturday mauling came after last month, when a mountain biker was injured in a bear attack on the Dome Trail on the Hillside. Earlier this year, two U.S. Army soldiers were injured in a mauling in April at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson after they were attacked by a male brown bear near a den site.
For hikers using trails above Bear Valley, the immediate change is the warning at trailheads and the report of fresh bear activity nearby. The contact on Saturday ended with one woman hospitalized, three dogs involved, and no indication in the record that the encounter was more than a brief close-range clash.
