Alaska News

Alaskan woman uses insect spray, fends off Grizzly in Interior

On the afternoon of July 12, Alyson Jones-Robinson, of North Pole, Alaska, was hiking with her two nieces when the three encountered a hostile young Grizzly Bear.

According to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 43-year-old Jones-Robinson and her 13 and 9-year-old nieces were traveling along the Granite Tors Trail, east of Fairbanks in the Chena River State Recreation Area, when the encounter took place. Jones-Robinson guesses that the bear was about two years old and weighed 100 to 200 pounds, but it was acting very aggressively toward the group.

In an interview with the News-Miner, Jones-Robinson recounts:

Jones-Robinson was able to get into her bag, but the only thing she could grab in time was a bottle of natural bug repellent. The bear came near again:

Eventually Jones-Robinson and her nieces were able to get away from the bear, which continued to follow them for a while. The trail, however, remains open. Troopers have posted warning signs in the area, but no immediate action has taken place.

To read more about the hair-raising encounter visit Tim Mowry's report for the Fairbanks Daily News Miner.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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