The whole encounter lasted less than 30 seconds.
It started with a powerful roar—just like the ones you hear in the movies. Then, before he knew it, Etienne Cardinal was knocked off his bike and preparing for a vicious attack.
But the attack didn’t come. There was only a single blow to his back—one that left claw marks from his shoulder to his hip—and then inexplicably the bear ran off.
It wasn’t until he got a face full of bear spray that Cardinal realized what had happened: when the startled grizzly bear came down on him, pushing him to the ground, it bit into the can attached to his hydration pack, releasing a cloud of pure capsaicin into its mouth.
“The can is torn. It’s crushed and torn,” said Cardinal two days after the event. “He bit it. I ducked on my knees, protecting myself, waiting for more to come and nothing came. Then I looked behind and the bear was running up the hill.”
Cardinal, a former grizzly bear researcher with the Foothills Research Institute in Hinton, was mountain biking on a wild land trail above Cottonwood Slough, when he encountered the grizzly bear, May 24.
He was just finishing up his ride, having gone out after work to get some fresh air and exercise. It was around 9 p.m. and his mind was on what to make for dinner.
“I was taking it easy all evening—because I was by myself, I didn’t want to fall and get injured, and I was tired.
“I came down a little technical stretch, and then a little single track stretch—I don’t think I was riding very fast. I didn’t see it coming at all. I heard it first.”
From the sound of that first roar, Cardinal, a resource management officer for Parks Canada, immediately started yelling “whoa, whoa!”
And then it was only a matter of seconds before the bear took him down. The details are a bit foggy, but Cardinal said he can remember standing next to his bike—although he’s not sure if he was swatted from it or if he jumped off.
At that moment he knew it was a bear, but he was so startled that he wasn’t able to process the events as quickly as they were happening.
“Then all of a sudden I had a clear picture—I had a big round face looking at me, and I was still screaming and kind of backing up and then it he just stood up and came down on me, mouth wide open.”
In that split second, Cardinal turned his back and crouched down to protect himself. The next thing he knew, the bear was gone, and he was overcome by a cloud of bear spray—leaving him blind and choking.
Then, in an effort to call for help, he turned his pack around to search for his cellphone, and as he did, the contents of the bear spray poured all over his chest and arms.
“I was blind for almost 20 minutes and it was burning all over my body. It burned like hell,” he recalled.
But, even through the pain, he managed to get to his phone and call for help.
“Usually I would call 911 to get dispatch, but the last person I texted was one of the duty officers that night, so I hit the button and he answered it.”
And with that, and some impressive directions, the first responders were on their way.
As he waited, Cardinal—who has Level C Advanced Wilderness and Remote First Aid training—started checking his body for injuries.
“Bear spray is kind of orange, so my white shirt was covered in orange stuff and I didn’t know if it was mixed with blood.
“And I was burning, so I couldn’t feel if there was a wound. I couldn’t see and I couldn’t tell if it’s blood or not, so I was touching all of my major arteries to see if I’d been injured, but I still couldn’t tell.”
So, when the EMTs arrived, they treated him as if he was and got him to the hospital as quickly as possible. Once there, Cardinal got in the shower and stayed there, with freezing cold water rushing over his burning skin, for an hour and a half.
The nurses could hardly even come in the room because of the fumes in the air, and, on a number of occassions, Cardinal had to run from the shower, out into the fresh air, just to catch his breath.
“Then they figured out that one of the options is using milk—that apparently neutralizes the pepper. So I was rinsing, alternating using the milk and dish soap. The milk will kind of neutralize it and refresh your skin and the soap washes the oil base spray away.”
Two days after the event, Cardinal said he was starting to feel the pain in his back, and he was exhausted from the attention he’s received.
He said, although he appreciates the support from the community, he’s ready to get back to his quiet life, living in the boonies near Mount Edith Cavell, and playing on the trails in his downtime.
“Lots of people run into bears on the trails and nothing happens. It was just bad timing,” he said of his encounter.
“’I’ll try and get out on a bike ride as soon as I can, as soon as I’m ready for that. I have to get my bike tuned up—I think the bear might have stepped on my front wheel, it’s kind of crooked now.
“And I’ll buy a new helmet because it’s covered in bear spray. So, I’ll get set up again and try and get out.”
Bear attacks are extremely rare in the park, with the last one taking place in 2006 and before that in the 1980s.
“Every year we get two or three bluff charges from bears that are reported to us, but actual contact encounters like this one are extremely rare,” said Resource Conservation Manager John Wilmshurst, noting that the park’s bears have just woken up in the last few weeks. “They’re hungry and maybe a little bit grumpy.”
To protect the grizzly bear, as well as trail users, Parks has implemented a temporary trail closure for trails 6, 6a, 6b and 6c, and it is encouraging all trail users to be bear aware—travel in groups, carry bear spray and a cellphone, tell someone where you’re going and when you’ll be back, make noise on the trails, and pay attention to warnings and closures.
“We put up closures for the safety of hikers and for wildlife, it’s really important in the Jasper area,” said Wilmshurst.
For information on trail closures and warnings, visit Parks Canada’s website at www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/ab/jasper/index.aspx and click “Closures and Warnings in Jasper” on the lefthand side.
Nicole Veerman[email protected]
