Kodiak resident Katelynn Lane never expected her Tuesday afternoon dog walk to turn into a confrontation for her life, but that is exactly what happened when an 800-pound (about 363 kg) brown bear burst out of the bush near her.
According to sources, Lane was walking her dog, Vesper, along a familiar route near Bells Flats, a small community roughly 10 miles from the town of Kodiak, on Aug. 18 when a sow protecting her cubs charged toward her close to a salmon str3am.
She had no bear spray or other deterrents on hand, so she fell back on the basics, making noise and holding her ground. The bear kept coming anyway, and Lane scrambled up a steep hill to try to put distance between them.
It was on that climb that Vesper stepped in. The dog turned back toward the bear and drew its attention away just long enough for Lane to reset her footing and prepare for what came next.
What happened after that surprised even Lane. As the bear closed in again, she found herself on her back with her feet pointed downhill, a stance she says was pulled straight from her limited time training in jiu-jitsu.
“Thinking back on it now, I have done a small amount of jiu-jitsu training, actually,” Lane said during the interview. “And that position that I was in is exactly how you would create space in jiu-jitsu, right? You use one leg to kind of block and you kick with the other leg.”
She is not entirely sure whether the move was muscle memory or pure survival reflex.
“I don’t know if that was what made that happen or if that was entirely instinctual, but if a person wanted to attribute it to some sort of training, then I suppose that would be it,” she said.
The bear grabbed Lane’s right leg as she lay on the ground, and she used the leverage of her position to drive a kick into its face. The blow was enough to end the encounter. From charge to retreat, the entire ordeal lasted only a few minutes, according to Lane’s father, who happened to be on FaceTime with her when the bear appeared and watched the confrontation unfold from thousands of miles away.
“Knowing that my father was there and he was able to say this encounter probably lasted three minutes at most,” Lane said. “In that time, aside from the one moment where I was able to flip onto my back, there was really no reprieve.”
Having someone else witness the timeline, she said, has eased some of the second-guessing that followed.
“And guilt-wise, it makes me feel a little bit better, right? I’m kicking myself every other minute thinking, gosh, could have prevented this altogether potentially,” Lane said.
Lane is careful not to cast the bear as the villain of her own story. She sees the animal’s behavior as a mother doing what mothers do, not as an act of malice, and she walked away with mostly deep bruising and a handful of minor scratches that she says are healing on schedule. She gives Vesper full credit for buying her the opening she needed.
“The moment I knew Vesper was helping me was when she turned back and tried to go after him, which allowed me to turn around and face her,” Lane said. “And I thought at that time, okay, maybe I have a second to try to gain my bearings and find something to hide behind or put between us.”
Once the sow retreated with her cubs, Lane called 911 and made her way to a nearby residence, where neighbors stayed with her and Vesper until Alaska State Troopers and emergency medical crews arrived.
The experience has not driven Lane away from the trail she has walked for years. She plans to return to her regular route once she has fully recovered, though not without some new precautions in tow.
“I need to just build up that confidence again and I will be geared up,” Lane said. “I already ordered myself some bear bells. I ordered Vesper some bear bells as well, so we’ll be nice and loud next go around.”
