Kathleen Baran will be fine, thanks very much for asking, despite a black bear chomping down on her arm through her tent wall near South Fork, and having to unclamp the marauder\u2019s jaws by punching it in the face.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But there are a couple of things Baran wants inquiring minds to know. First, no, she absolutely did not have food in her tent that might have attracted the bear, despite what she says Colorado and Arizona health officials said about her while exchanging information.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And second, a bear bite described in news releases as a bland \u201cpuncture wound\u201d actually hurts like a mother \u2026 elephant sitting on your arm. She thought she had broken a bone. Or two.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That said, Baran, an experienced international solo hiker and camper, feels lucky today, after Friday\u2019s early-morning attack at a campground she\u2019d pulled into to get a few hours rest while on a road trip. Lucky the blind attack wasn\u2019t from a wolf, as she first suspected when startled awake by the grip of sharp teeth through tent fabric. And fortunate it was her arm and not something else.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very lucky because he could have easily just chomped down on my head and not my arm if I had not put my arm up,\u201d said Baran, speaking by phone from the remote area of Arizona she calls home. \u201cI mean, it could have kept on attacking. I didn\u2019t know what he was doing because I was stuck inside my tent. That was the worst part of it. I couldn\u2019t see where he was, what his next move was going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n