From a hospital bed in Kodiak Thursday, a 68-year-old Alaska man mauled by a brown bear said he is doing well despite the more than 100 staples in his leg that keep a chunk of his skin attached to the back of his thigh.
Michael Snowden, an avid hunter from Sitka, said the brown bear sow managed to tear his hamstring muscle, but not sever it completely, when it plowed him over on a small island near Kodiak Tuesday and grabbed ahold of his right leg while he scrambled to reach the revolver strapped to his chest.
"It all happens in seconds," he said. "You don't have time to think. You're not necessarily thinking that you're going to die, but I don't know what keeps you thinking you're going to live either."
Snowden's day started when he and his son-in-law, Jeff Ostrin, stepped off a tender vessel Tuesday morning and onto Sally Island, a tiny island in Uganik Bay close to the shores of Kodiak. They were on the sixth day of their annual weeklong hunting trip.
"In all the years we've hunted, we've never been attacked like this," said Ostrin, 38, from Camas, Washington.
The men climbed up a hillside, each carrying a rifle. Around 10 a.m., Ostrin shot and killed a deer from the top of a ridge. They gutted the animal, then traversed back down the slope, through dense alder thickets, dragging its carcass behind them.
"We unfortunately made the decision to take a break and eat," Snowden said.
He estimated they were less than a mile from the coast where the vessel, the "Mary J," waited with at least six other hunters onboard. Through binoculars, some could see Snowden and Ostrin. They could also see a brown bear and two large cubs -- between 2 and 3 years old -- traveling nearby.
They attempted to reach the men by radio, but Snowden said they didn't have their radio turned on. They fired shots into the air, but Snowden said he thought it was just other hunters shooting at deer.
Ostrin said a man on the vessel told him the bears walked away from Snowden and Ostrin -- until they hit the trail of blood left by the deer carcass.
"He said that the sow was alerted to the smell and just turned and was in full charge for 500 yards, and she beelined right to us," Ostrin said.
Meanwhile, he and Snowden had pulled out sandwiches and taken a seat at the edge of a brush-covered area overlooking a meadow, hoping to spot another deer.
"We were sitting there for a minute or two when we heard some rustling behind us," Ostrin said.
The men stood up. Snowden fired a round from his rifle into the brush, but it didn't hit what ran toward him. He said the vegetation was so thick, he could only see about 6 feet ahead of him.
Then, Ostrin said, "The bear kind of exploded out of the brush. We couldn't even see it coming. It went straight for Mike, and it knocked him down and bit onto his leg and started shaking its head and dragging Mike around on the ground quite a bit.
"There was zero time to do anything from the moment we saw it to the moment it was on top of Mike," he said.
Snowden said he lost his grip on his rifle as the bear gnawed on his leg. He pulled at his revolver, but he couldn't manage to unhook a small leather strap and free the weapon from its holster. Ostrin took a few steps back.
"I was thinking, 'How do I safely engage in this situation without endangering Mike?'" Ostrin said.
He waited for a clear shot and fired into the bear's hindquarters and then again into its chest. The bear fell and dragged Snowden down the hill. Ostrin shot the bear a third time, killing the animal.
He checked on Snowden, who held his hand over a wound on the back of his thigh. He then radioed the vessel for help. When he returned to stand guard over Snowden, a second bear -- believed to be one of the cubs -- emerged from the brush. He shot and killed it.
Meanwhile, the others on the vessel had started running up the hill. They had also radioed the U.S. Coast Guard.
"They were scrambling," Snowden said. "It took them maybe 15 or 20 minutes" to reach the two men.
The group focused on keeping Snowden conscious and warm until a Coast Guard helicopter arrived overhead. Snowden was hoisted into the helicopter on a stretcher. He had puncture wounds and an area of skin about the size of a piece of notebook paper torn from the back of his thigh, leaving what he described as "a big hole."
Snowden was taken to a local airport and then to the Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center. Ostrin flew in a small, chartered airplane back to Kodiak.
By Thursday, Snowden said he was walking around the hospital without the use of a cane. His wife Gloria and Ostrin were by his bedside. Both men repeatedly thanked the Coast Guard, medical staff and the hunters and crew on the vessel.
"Everyone just did everything right," Snowden said.
After recounting the attack from his hospital bed Thursday, Snowden said, "I'd say the real message that we can convey is to remind people how quickly (bears) can follow a blood scent and how far away they can smell it."