Bear chases hikers near Mission

ST. IGNATIUS - We all have horror stories about bad dates.

Andrew White and Dakota Peterson's story might just take the cake.

The two were hiking in the Mission Mountains Aug. 19 only to come 10 yards from a full-grown black bear.

After running from the bear for about 40 minutes, the two made it to their car, half-blind, out of breath and White shoeless, only to have left the keys in the backpack that was dropped at the beginning of the chase.

Thank goodness for technology.

The pair's vehicle had keyless entry.

White and Peterson, both graduates of Polson High School, left Ronan to head to Mission Falls to hike to the waterfall. They parked their car at about 11:15 a.m. and hiked up the Mission Falls trail for 20 minutes nonstop at a fast pace. Going somewhere from one to two miles on the trail, White said, the pair reached an open spot where it looked like a place to camp with an open circle of trees and the trail. In that same place, Peterson had stopped with her little brother and sister and seen a bobcat two days before.

White turned around and saw a full-grown male black bear on all fours walking up the trail no more than 10 feet away. White yelled at it, trying to scare it off, but the bear turned away and started walking down the trail. Peterson pulled out her bear spray and gave it to White before calling her aunt to tell her where they were on the trail. As Peterson started to run away, the bear began to walk towards White, who let the bear get five feet away before spraying it and taking off running.

"I've hiked that before and never saw a bear before," Peterson said.

The bear, now angry, followed the pair, pushing them 20 yards off the trail towards the river. White turned around and the bear stopped, stared and started walking towards him. White, on the other side of a fallen tree, again let him get close enough to spray, before running away, following Peterson towards the river, which was at least another 50 yards from where White sprayed it the second time. The duo ran to the river, climbed down a four-foot ledge and slid into the water, not thinking the bear would follow. With a fast current and water up to their knees, White and Dakota made it to the other side.

The bear, however, wasn't going to give up that easily. He climbed out on a tree branch and jumped down three feet into the water. It took him awhile to cross the river, but he made it and started gaining ground on the two.

The game warden the two talked to afterwards said the berries bloomed late, making the bear hungry.

"It was either that or the bear spray," Peterson said about the reason the bear kept chasing them.

White and Peterson decided to cross back, but this time it was a lot faster. Peterson lost her feet and fell, barely holding on to White's four fingers that were also holding the bear spray.

He discharged the spray trying to pick her back up, spraying her in the face.

"It just burns your eyes and your whole body," she said.

When she got to her feet, the bear was on the bank to the left of the pair, less then five feet away. Peterson's adrenaline was pumping after falling and being sprayed, but she escaped out of the river to the other bank.

White sprayed the bear again, in the face, and the bear ran up the bank away from the pair.

White exited the river and followed Peterson, who couldn't see nor breathe very well. She kept going as they tried to find the trail they had left. The trail was nowhere to be found, so they stayed close to the bank.

They ran through the woods, falling over branches and stepping in holes, with no sign of the trail. There was, however, the bear.

White turned around to see him find his way through a broken down tree. White sprayed again in the bear's general direction before finding a creek. The creek led to a swamp with water up to their waists. White lost his shoe, so he decided to take his other one off and ran barefoot.

At this point, 30 minutes had passed with no luck of finding the trail and still in a chase. White accidentally sprayed the bear spray and the pair ran into the mist, blinding the two with no trail or river near. After tripping, falling and cutting themselves on branches, they could barely keep sight of the path or bear as branches hit their face and eyes.

Than their luck turned around.

Not looking back, the two kept going. As the two were going down a small hill, Peterson prayed out loud to find a trail as Andrew began to pray in his head.

Two minutes later, they found the trail.

Peterson led the way on the trail as White was bare foot. For 15 minutes, the two ran down the hill, consisting of mostly sharp rocks.

Peterson had pulled something in her side as she kept up the motivation to keep White running behind her.

"My feet were killing me," he said.

They finally made it to the car. Peterson didn't realize she left the keys to the car in her backpack, which she dropped at the beginning of the chase because there was food in there.

Luckily, there is a pass code on the side of White's grandparent's Ford Explorer. They sat in the car while making phone calls and waiting for someone to show up. Dakota's grandma had called the game warden, who showed up within 10 minutes of reaching the car.

The game warden told the two that because the berries bloomed late, bears have become agitated and hungry.

"It was either that or the bear spray," Peterson said.

All-in-all, the bear chase brought the two closer together.

"He was pretty amazing," Peterson said of White. "He pretty much saved our lives."