A 32-year-old San Diego man hiking in a Montana national park survived after a grizzly bear bit his arm and dragged him dozens of feet last month.
Daniel Crago is now recovering at home in San Carlos after suffering broken bones and a large wound that damaged tissue in his arm. But he said he is feeling lucky and grateful after the attack that could have killed him.
Crago said he was in Glacier National Park, hiking the Grinnell Glacier trail, when the attack occurred on May 28.
“We were about 100 yards from the end of the trail where there was a snowfield,” Crago said. “My friend stayed back, and I followed two hikers to the end. I took in the views, took some pictures and about 10 minutes later began heading back across the snow along the trail.”
Crago said something caught his attention off to his left. He looked back, and there was a small grizzly cub, but it was already past him and hadn’t noticed him.
That’s when he looked up and saw a larger grizzly about 15 feet above him on the snow patch.
At first he froze, but then he did what he was trained to do as a veteran hiker and outdoorsman. He began to alert the bear, but in a way that would hopefully not scare the bear.
“So I said, ‘Hey bear! Hey bear!’” Crago recounted. “But as soon as it looked up, it charged toward me.”
Crago said the bear needed only to take two quick galloping bounds before it was on him. “I heard it roar, and I just stuck my arm up,” Crago said. “It bit down, dragged me about 20 feet down the mountain. And then it let go.”
While lying on the ground, he said he knew his arm was going to be severely damaged where the bear had clamped down.
“I looked down and just kind of see my hand dangling; there was an open wound and blood was just gushing out,” Crago said. He later added: “But I knew if I passed out, that could be it.”
Crago said he began to panic.
“As the bear came toward me, there was this thought that I didn’t think I was going to survive,” he said. “And when the bear had let me go and took off, it was still a similar panic of ‘I’m going to bleed out.’”
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He got up and started to run, but a pair of hikers coming up to the scene told him to stop immediately.
“They’re yelling at me, ‘Don’t run, don’t run, lay down, don’t run, don’t move,’ because if the bear had still been in the area and I’m running away, they typically chase,” Crago said. “So I just lay down.”
Fortunately for him, his friend and the other hikers on the trail who had been nearby knew what to do. One was even a doctor and was able to tourniquet the wound, bandage up the other injuries and temporarily stabilize him. Another hiker called for a med-evac, and the others began to make noise to scare the bear off from possibly returning.
“I was just talking to my friend, drinking water and trying to stay as calm as I could,” Crago said. “The group effort is what saved my life.”
About a half hour later, Crago said he heard the EMS helicopter coming to the top of the trail.
Crago was taken to a Montana hospital, where he would stay for the next week before coming home.
He said the bear’s bite caused complete fractures in both bones in his forearm.
“Thankfully, that was it. I have a couple scratches on my torso from the bear claw, but it was nothing deep,” Crago said. “And I just got so incredibly lucky because it missed major arteries and major nerves and tendons in my arm.”
He said that with further treatment and physical therapy, his arm should make at least a 90% recovery from the tissue and nerve damage. In an effort to help him with some of the medical costs, Crago set up a GoFundMe page.
Crago was one of at least two bear attacks in Glacier National Park in May. The other attack, which occurred on May 8, killed a 33-year-old man who was solo hiking in the area.
“From the hikers on the trail, everyone who has helped donate to my medical bills to the point, people I don’t even know, I just have immense gratitude for everyone who took action,” he said.
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