An Anchorage woman who survived a bear mauling this summer says she’s grateful to all of the public safety agencies that scrambled to rescue her. Victoria Lydle, 67, recounted the attack on Tuesday, surrounded by many of the public safety officials who saved her.
She said she was hiking alone on the Dome Trail in East Anchorage on July 22. Then, around 2 p.m., she heard a brown bear barking toward her. She shot her bear spray at it, but it ended up knocking her to the ground.
“I don’t remember being down, but I do remember laying there being chewed on and trying to play dead,” Lydle said. She said the attack lasted less than a couple minutes, but she suffered several injuries, including lingering nerve damage to her arms and cuts to the jugular vein in her neck.
“There were 100 staples in my head,” Lydle said. “She chewed on my head or clawed it up. And those are okay. There’s still lots of numbness. Same with the stitches and stuff on the jugular, they’re healing, but they’re kind of a pain.”
