SPOKANE, Wash. — Growing up in the Yukon, Melanie Klassen had seen numerous bicycle tourists pedaling the Alaska Highway, but never one with a canine companion running behind him.The wolf nipped at the bike's rear packs the way it would bite the hamstrings of a fleeing moose in the drawn-out ordeal of subduing large prey.
"I thought it was odd until I saw the panicked look on the biker's face - as though he was about to be eaten," she said in a telephone interview.
"That wasn't a dog; it was a wolf."
The cyclist, William "Mac" Hollan, 35, of Sandpoint, Idaho, verified Klassen's observation of Saturday's incident: "At this point I realized I might not be going home, and I began to panic at the thought of how much it was going to hurt."
Hollan, who was prepared for grizzly encounters, blasted the wolf with bursts of bear spray on several occasions. He said the wolf would fade back 20 feet or so and then move up again.
Full story here.
8 comments:
That's called developing your sprint muscles.
Not much of that sourdough spirit in any of these unarmed folks, is there?
PH, you'd think he'd try to outrun the wolf. At least, I would have.
Bob, none at all. Apparently he's never been chased by anything larger than a cat, to judge by his example.
I will be staying in balmy, if soggy, NY, thank you! Wow!
Rev. Paul,
Interesting, I wonder if the wolf had rabies?
We had fox in Virginia that would come at you and keep coming to hurt/kill, it had rabies and put up a fight like you wouldn't believe. It's not uncommon there.
threecollie, the cyclist should have been armed. Would almost have been a non-story, had he been packing.
Sandy, it's possible, but we may never know.
I would of peddled that bike until my legs fell off.
Corey, that was my thought. Of course, I'd have been armed, too. Nothing says "back off!" like a .45 in the snout.
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