There's nothing worse than staring down an angry grizzly bear. Okay, I take it back. The one thing worse than getting caught by an angry grizzly is getting caught with a cliff against your back.
Although this story isn't a new one (it's over a hundred years old), its fear stands the test of time. I came across it and thought I might share dear reader of a time a hunter got a little more than he bargained for. For this tale, let's rewind back to the early 1900s and shake in our boots a little for this scary tale of survival.
The tale appears in Outdoor Life, written by Anton Money. In the story, the hunter was out with his colleague Old Cap and about when they were blocked by a grizzly and her two cubs.
Grizzly Falls To Its Death
He writes, "Facing us, blocking our only possible exit, was a massive grizzly sow. Beside her, two five-month-old cubs stood watching us. One of them trotted out toward us in a playful gallop, like a child's puppy chasing a ball. With a grunt the old she-bear rolled out after it and cuffed it with a huge paw, sending it spinning through the air. For a moment she just stood there, eyeing us, making me wish for that heavy rifle again. Then she turned and chased her cubs back into the woods."
But the bear then reared its head again. It ended up chasing them back against the cliff with no where to go. The writer wrote, "We backed almost to the edge of the precipice. There was nowhere to run, no tree to climb, and it was impossible to climb down the sheer wall behind us. I looked at Old Cap. His face was set. His firm jaw stuck out a little as he watched the oncoming half-ton of fury."
The hunter didn't even have a rifle in the moment to defend himself. Meanwhile, his colleague, Old Cap, had his gun raised at the creature. But the two managed to trick the grizzly bear off the cliff.
The writer explained, "The bear was almost on top of us when, with a deafening roar, the shot from both barrels smacked into that enormous shaggy head. Cap and I both jumped aside. The huge beast tried to slew around as the shot, striking like a ball, blinded both eyes. But the impetus she had gained in her mad charge carried her past us, and in a flash she was over the precipice. I heard an agonizing death bellow, followed by the slide of rocks as she struck the broken basalt 200 feet below."
Somehow they had managed to outsmart the creature! The grizzly plummeted to its death.
