‘I went down like a sack of potatoes’: Irish paddler talks about bear encounter in Yukon backcountry

Eight days after a solo canoe trip through the Yukon backcountry, Dermot Higgins encountered a bear.

Things went badly for both of them – but it could have ended much worse.

The adventurer from Dublin, Ireland, had spent the first week of July on the Yukon River in the early stages of his quest to paddle more than 2,000 miles to the Bering Sea.

He spent the night at a campsite at Selwyn near Carmacks.

Though Higgins says he was careful to secure his food, he noticed a mess left by others — empty wrappers and human waste. He cleaned up what he could and pitched his tent.

Early the next morning he awoke to the sound of something hitting his tent and breaking one of the poles. Looking through the mesh of the tent, he saw a black bear and cub a few feet away.

“I was really almost paralyzed with fear. You know, a lot of thoughts went through my head really quickly,” he said.

Leaving the tent would mean turning his back on the bear. Instead, he produced a tin whistle and a bell. He started making noise “not very melodic”.

But bells and whistles seemed to make the bear angrier. It circled the tent with Cub in tow, climbed onto the picnic table, then charged toward him, growling.

Higgins had one tool left: a can of bear spray.

He got the bear square in the face.

“The bear backed off very quickly. And then actually, because I sprayed [it] the fabric of the tent also got me a lot of bear spray in my own face — a lot,” he said.

“I don’t know how much went to the bear, how much went to me. I choked and I couldn’t see, and I started vomiting.”

And then he fainted.

“I went down like a sack of potatoes,” he said.

Flee down the river

He regained consciousness about half an hour later. The bear and her cub seemed to be gone, but Higgins didn’t stick around to find out.

He threw everything into his canoe and made tracks along the river. He paddled all day and then continued into the wee hours, hoping to meet other paddlers with whom to camp.

“I was really traumatized by the whole thing,” he said.

Finally he reached Dawson City.

Bad campers

It’s not clear if the garbage left at the campground attracted the bear.

Adam Henderson, a Yukon conservation officer, confirmed that they had received a report on the incident, but noted that there was a delay between when it happened and when it was reported, so the information they have on the bear , is limited.

Higgins said that aside from the junk he found at that campground, most of the ones he’s visited were “pristine.”

Sebastian Jones, a wildlife analyst with the Yukon Conservation Society, said it was disturbing to hear about the state of the campground.

“That bothers me,” he said. “It’s very bad when that happens. There’s no excuse for doing that.”

If you put things in the bushes, you have to take them back home, he said — and if you don’t want to carry your droppings out, bury them.

“Not doing so is inconsiderate and rude and potentially, as in this case, very dangerous. This man could have been seriously injured or killed,” he said.

He added that with the number of oarsmen using the Yukon River, things can be done to “make it easier for people to do the right thing.”

He pointed out what’s being done on the river between Lake Laberge and Carmacks, where the Laberge Renewable Resources Council is putting out fire pits and outbuildings to reduce waste from paddlers and campers.

Jones, an accomplished outdoorsman who has lived and camped in the Yukon for decades, said he’s dealt with bears up close, but never a dangerous one.

He said it’s a good idea to get training on how to use bear spray, like any other weapon.

As for Higgins, the meeting made him seriously consider whether to continue his journey.

With some time and space between him and the bear, he posted an update on Facebook on Tuesday to say that he has decided to proceed.