Saskatoon man has run-ins with bear

A Saskatoon man had multiple encounters with a bear while camping at Makwa Lake Provincial Park.

From July 26 through Sunday, Travis Hiebert had three run-ins with the wild animal.

Their first meeting was a brief one.

“I was having a nap in my hammock. I woke up because I heard a loud snort … I looked, and there was a bear. Surprised the heck out of me,” Hiebert told 650 CKOM.

However, once he yelled at the bear, it ran back into the bush and left him alone.

He reported the incident to conservation officers, and double-checked to make sure there wasn’t any garbage or food left out in the open.

“That’s how bears become problem animals, because people leave garbage out,” Hiebert said.

He noticed the bear rummaging through trash in another campsite on Saturday. Once again, Hiebert called conservation officers, but they weren’t able to trap the bear that night.

On the third day, the animal returned and tore open Hiebert’s screen kitchen to get at his cooler. He threw rocks at it to chase it off, but that didn’t work.

It began to run at him, so he thought of another solution.

“I did have my axe in my hand, and I did swing at (the bear). I didn’t hit it, but it was just a matter of keeping it away from me, keeping it off of me,” he said. “It ran about 10 or 12 feet to get at me.”

He said that, in the moment, he wasn’t afraid.

“Adrenaline was pumping, it was absolutely exhilarating. You don’t have time to think about how scary it is,” he recalled. “In retrospect, it was absolutely terrifying.”

Hiebert said conservation officers eventually tracked down the bear and destroyed it.