Asheville, North Carolina trail runner Bill Palas narrowly survived a mother bear’s attack on Friday, July 7. Palas, who has been running the trails of Pisgah National Forest for almost 30 years, said that nothing prepared him for the encounter.
The runner was on a trail he covered two to three times a week when he turned the corner and encountered a cub. The baby took off running up the hill. “When you see a cub like that, there’s usually a mom around,” he told WLOS. “So, I go, and I turn around real quick—and all of a sudden, there I see the momma bear.”
Palas attempted to scare the bear away by waving his hands and yelling. The scare tactic seemed to work for a moment: The mother retreated down the hill. However, she soon returned—and this time, she attacked. “She stands up on her back legs, and here’s this head—her head must have been the size of a basketball—and it’s right here," Palas said to WLOS. “She takes her claw, and she rakes it across my face and chest.” He held his arm up to defend himself, but it ended up in the bear’s jaws.
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Palas thought the bear would kill him then. Instead, he says, she grabbed her cub and left. The runner collected himself and began running back home. “I was running on adrenaline and shock,” Palas said. “I got 20 yards or so down the steep hill and I surveyed myself. You know, ‘How bad am I?’ All I know is blood is just gushing out everywhere.”
Fortunately, Palas made it home, and his wife took him to the hospital, where a facial plastic surgeon spent three hours sewing his wounds.
The survivor told WLOS that because the attack happened so quickly, he’s unsure if bear spray would have helped. “I just feel so lucky that I’m together,” he said. “I mean, seeing these three-inch razor claws, I could see them this close to my face. Man, it’s just surreal.”
Palas added that his run-in with wildlife won’t deter him from returning to his usual workout routine. “It’s kind of like lightning rarely strikes someone—but it struck me this time,” he said, later adding, “I definitely have some wilderness street cred now ’cause, how many people do you know that’s been attacked by a bear?”
Kells McPhillips is a health and wellness journalist living in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in Runner's World, The New York Times, Well+Good, Fortune, Shape, and others.
