Grizzly bear attack survivor shares story to help others find resilience

A Canadian who survived a grizzly bear attack is sharing his story of resilience, recovery and overcoming adversity in an effort to help others in their own journeys.

Jeremy Evans — also known as The Grizzly Dude, as a nine-year-old boy dubbed him — spoke at the Safety Stand Down Breakfast at the Weyburn Oil and Gas Show this week. Evans also joined The Evan Bray Show on Wednesday to share more of his story.

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Listen to the full interview, or read the transcript below:

The following questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.

EVAN BRAY: This story is one that, I think, when many people hear it for the first time, they almost can’t believe it. Take us back to 2017.

JEREMY EVANS: On Aug. 24, 2017, that morning, I went out. I actually had a plan to go on a three-day sheep hunt. I think I had the perfect plan. I knew where my ram was. My goal was to get in there day before sheep season to find my ram, put him to bed, harvest them the next morning and be out on day three — quick, in-and-out trip.

BRAY: And you’d done this before?

EVANS: I hunted sheep for 17 years, and up until this point, I wasn’t sure what a legal ram looked like, so I finally found one. I knew he was legal and I was on top of him pretty much every three days from beginning of April, now to the end of August. So I was super excited.

I just wanted to get out there, and on that morning I left my truck about 2:30 in the morning, hopped (on) my bicycle, made about a 12-kilometre trek into the bush where I normally look for sheep. I come up over the last drainage and spotted some sheep across the hillside. I got pretty excited, because heck, I’m on a sheep hunt, and there’s sheep. I was working my way through the bush …

BRAY: And you were by yourself?

EVANS: I was by myself. I just didn’t want to wait for anybody to go with (me). I’m on the hillside, watching the sheep. I make my way slowly through the trees. I got to the little open spot on the hillside and spotted my ram across the way, so I got really excited.

I was watching around with my binoculars and I moved away, stood up to stretch, and I noticed this little brown fuzzy thing right in front of me. I mean, I knew exactly what it was – it was all cute and fuzzy, something you wanted to pet. And I got at this overwhelming feeling that I was in the wrong spot at the right time, because where was mama? I mean, she had to be close.

BRAY: It was a grizzly cub you saw?

EVANS: Yeah, it was a grizzly cub, just probably a little bit bigger than a small dog, like a five-gallon bucket bouncing around. It was pretty neat. I mean, it was only five-to-10 feet away.

BRAY: How long after that did you spot mom?

EVANS: It was probably half a second to a second later. I heard a branch break over my right shoulder. When I looked over my shoulder, there was mama. She was already on a full charge and less than arm’s reach away. I remember seeing out of the corner of my eye her mouth slightly open, her paw was reaching for me, and you can see her teeth. And I mean, she was right there.

BRAY: What happened next? Do you remember the attack?

EVANS: I remember every second of the attack, the whole journey in and out. I remember everything in great detail.

The first little bit was hand-to-hand combat with my backpack, beating her. I smashed her in the face, trying to deter her from chewing on me, and she managed to get hold of my right hand and crushed it against the frame of the backpack.

After that, things got a little more violent. I started beating her over the head with my backpack, smashing her in the face, and then she kind of backed away and we got separated by about 30-or-so feet, and I tried to get my bear spray out of my backpack, and she ended up turning around and came charging in at me a second time.

I figured I had 30 feet. I can outrun this bear. She’s maybe about 60-or-so feet away. I jumped up in a tree, and she came up after me and pulled me out of the tree, and we wrestled around the ground for a few seconds, and the first thing she did was bite me in the left side of the face.

She removed the whole left side of my face in one bite. Her top two canine teeth caught me on either side of the left eye and when she bit down, she totally removed the whole left side of my face in one bite. Then I said, “You know, screw this playing dead, this sucks getting chewed on.”

I rolled over and started punching her face, beating her up. She ended up taking off. I got up and thought everything was OK. I pulled my phone out, took a selfie and realized that I needed a few stitches.

BRAY: Did you feel like you were as injured as that picture shows?

EVANS: No, I remember looking at a picture and thinking to myself “Ah, it’s not too bad. Heck, I can go over and get that ram, or better yet, go have a little conversation with this bear and ask him, like, what the heck?”

BRAY: What did you do? You are in a remote location. You’re by yourself. You are seriously injured. Did you think you were going to live through that?

EVANS: At that point, I was thinking I was doing alright. I was leaning against a rotten log and had my gun off my pack, loading up, just trying to figure out what to do. About 10, 12 minutes passed by, and my whole body went numb. I heard the sound of ice breaking, and she had come back, and she now had me by the back of the skull.

BRAY: She was back another time?

EVANS: Came back for a third round and she grabbed me by the back of the head, dragged me back about 10, 15 feet and then peeled the rest of my face off with her paws and she was chewing on my head, and then I managed to inflict a little bit of pain on her.

I grabbed her in very sensitive area, and she let go and took off, then after that, I fell down the mountainside – fell about 150, 200 feet down the mountainside, and then I gave up there. I tried to end things and then from there. I crawled out.

I decided it was time, and I crawled out, 12.8 kilometres to my truck, and from there managed to drive 22 kilometres to the first place for help. STARS was unavailable, and the ambulance couldn’t figure out where I was, so then we got a private helicopter that flew me out to a town.

This was happening in Alberta, west of Sundry. So they flew me from where I drove to to Sundry, Alberta – which is about a 45-minute helicopter ride – and when I got to Sundry Hospital, they’re like, “Well, nothing we can do for you,” so they shipped me off to Foothills Hospital in Calgary.

I got mauled at approximately 9:36 a.m., and I took the picture of me missing my face, and arrived to hospital shortly around nine that night.

BRAY: It is remarkable that you are alive today, and I know I’m not telling you something that you don’t already know. What is the reaction you get from people? Because now, you speak about resilience. You speak about mental health and wellness. You’ve experienced something very few people in the world can say they’ve experienced.

EVANS: I get a lot of surprising reactions. A lot of people that are appreciative of me actually standing up there in front of a group and sharing the emotional journey.

Who knew that actually fighting the bear and crawling up 12.8 kilometres was the easiest part of my journey? Heck, I’d go do that again tomorrow, knowing he outcome.

It’s the mental health side after that, that was the hardest part for me to recover from. And watching how you react to your family. My rock was my wife and kids, and they’re my main reason why I’m here today.

And I share my story just let people know that it’s alright. We all go through some hard times in life, but what’s that one thing that gets you out of those hard times? What is your rock, your non-negotiable that you would fight to the end for?

Use that to help get out of those difficult situations. Use that as your drive to keep pushing forward, no matter how impossible the path is. I call that my rock, and that’s one of the things I talk about. I also talk about how it’s alright to ask for help. We all need help at some time, and it’s OK to ask for help.

It’s OK to put yourself out there. That’s a strength, not a weakness. And us tough guys, you know, we may go out every weekend and fight bears, but doesn’t mean we’re mentally fit to look after a loved one. We need to get mentally fit first, before sticking our hand out, before looking after family. And that’s one of the biggest things that I realized, and that’s why I share my message, to let people know that it’s OK to ask for help. It’s OK.

BRAY: Along with helping people through speaking, and through being motivational and inspirational yourself, you’ve also developed a line of safety gear. Can you talk about it? 

EVANS: I designed a bear spray holster. It either goes on your thigh or on your chest, and it’s designed to keep your bear spray handy. The system is a one-buckle on-and-off system for the chest, and it’s a quick, easy three-buckle system for your thigh.

I wanted to design something that was easy to use and that could fit anybody that walks in the door. I originally designed this three, four years ago for myself and to keep my family safe when we go out hiking, and it actually will fit a small child, say a three year old. It fit my three year old at the time, and all the way up to an NFL linebacker that tested it for me, so 7-foot-8.

I just want something that can keep people safe out out there. Come on down and check it out. We got a booth (at the Weyburn Oil and Gas Show) or you can go on grizzlydude.ca and follow the story along there.

BRAY: What happened to the grizzly? Was she ever located?

EVANS: No. I didn’t want anything to happen to her. She didn’t do anything wrong. She was just being a bear, and I got between her and her cub, and I just need to suck it up and move on.

BRAY: Do you still hunt?

EVANS: I still go out there in the bush. You don’t need to need to abandon your passions in life because of something like that. I’m back out there.

I do it a lot differently now. I got a couple rules. I got to carry my bear spray with me, accessible at all times, and bring somebody slower and tastier with me.

BRAY: Your attitude is inspirational. What do you say do people who maybe haven’t gone through a bear attack, but are going through something right now, and they don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel? 

EVANS: It’s there. Find your rock, your reason, your purpose to keep pushing for in those hard times. It could be as simple as your child saying “I love you” in the morning, just that memory, that sound that’s powerful, that will get you to some of those hard moments. Maybe it’s a bracelet that your kids have made you, or maybe it’s a passion that you have, or you started a small business. It’s that idea that you had to originally start with.

Those can be your rock. Those are some of the things that can help push you through those hard times. And when you need help, ask for it. It’s OK. Professional help is there, and let me tell you, it works.

BRAY: Where in the world have you gone to share your story?

EVANS: I’ve been all across Canada and the United States. I’m actually leaving for a tour on June 22 to Singapore and UK. I’m kind of excited about that. A couple of weeks away.

I’m very passionate about this, and I want to make sure I help everybody and show people that there is a path to get out. There is a path. You can feel better about it. You can get through the PTSD, you can work through the nightmares.

There is a better place.