Canadian Brad Paras and his cousin Dan England were mountain biking in Jasper National Park last week when Paras spotted a grizzly and her cub roughly 35 feet from him.
Paras spewed an “Oh, s–t!” before making a hasty getaway. (More appropriate words have never been muttered.) Unfortunately, his “getaway” took him off the trail by a drop of about 50 feet in elevation that dead-ended into a tree.
While Paras was dealing with the crash, England got off his bike and got his pepper spray ready. The mother grizz charged England but stopped just shy of the spray’s effective range of 10 meters before heading back into the woods. Paras climbed back up the mountain with the bike in tow to find his cousin watching the bear disappear into the forest.
They walked their bikes out.
So what was Paras thinking while heading downhill and out of control?
“The whole way down I’m thinking, ‘I’m not supposed to be doing this. I’m supposed to find a place to hide,'” he said. “The bear was already charging me. It wanted me out of there. I think this was the safer thing to do.”
I’d tend to agree. Do you? Comment below.
Warning: Video contains explicit language.