Welcome back to Scary Bear Attacks! Today’s episode takes us to the hot and dry mountains around Caliente, California. The arid climate features mountains and hills sparsely covered in dry grasses, low growing desert bushes like Big Berry and Common Manzanita, Fremont Cottonwood and the Blue Oak tree. The ground cover is seasonally adorned with California Fuchsia, Western Columbine and Deer Grass plus many more. The animals of the area include the coyotes, jackrabbits, cottontail rabbits, mule deer and bobcats. The more dangerous inhabitants of this area include black bears. On the higher slopes of the desert mountains, forests of various kinds of Oak, Willow, Mesquite and Sycamore dominate the skyline and provide shade for all passersby.

On July 22nd of 2018, Allena Hansen was enjoying the freedom and space of her sprawling 70 acre ranchette. She always had chores to do to maintain the property but the 56 year old single mother embraced the hard work required. On this day she was focused on fixing a water line for a new vineyard she was planning on constructing in the near future. The spring fed into a concrete box with a flood gate and the spring had started to decrease in its flow. To Allena that meant she would have to dig out any obstructions to keep the water flowing in order to execute her plan. She hiked up the box canyon where the spring was located with her two trusty ranch hands, Deke, who was a huge English Mastiff, and Archimedes, a very large Irish Wolfhound. Her dogs were her best friends in many ways, and today’s events would once again confirm that fact to Allena.

There was nothing alarming about the day and she felt no strange or foreboding feelings as she worked. In fact, Deke and Archimedes had wandered off a short distance and found some shade to take a nap.

The tough rancher entered her irrigation box and began clearing mud and gravel from the mouth of the spring that fed it. As she worked in the summer heat, she could see the spring begin to produce a greater flow of water. She had to stop periodically to wipe her brow and rest. As she worked she drew the attention of a particularly predatory visitor who had somehow managed to slip past the sleeping dogs and approached to within ten feet of Allena.

After digging around a bit more, Allena stood up to recompose herself. This time she was not refreshed by rest, instead she was alarmed by a rather small black bear only a few feet from her. She noticed the bear had been simply standing there barely hidden by a small willow patch, as if it was waiting for her to notice it. As soon as their eyes met the angry black bear pounced on Allena.

She quickly tried to fold herself into the fetal position in the west sand to protect her head and neck as best she could. The bear immediately clamped its jaws onto her head and bit and pulled at her ears. As it pulled her by her head, it managed to bite onto her face. It immediately began to tear skin and tissues from her face as it bit. It used its mass of only about 150 pounds to pin her to the ground by sitting on her. Allena is only around 100 pounds so she wasn’t much of a challenge to control for the powerful bear. Even a small bear is much stronger than a very large man and quicker by far than any human.

As the bear pressed Allena into the sand it focused its attack on her head and face. It was clearly trying to rip her head off and possibly crush her skull. The terror that filled her mind was paralyzing, but somehow she fought as hard as she could.

The black bear sank its large canine teeth into Allena’s right eye socket and ripped small pieces of flesh from that area. She reported hearing her tissues being ripped and the chomping sound the bear's jaw made as it meted out its destruction on her.

It next focused on destroying her nose and mouth. Its jaws crushed and sliced the skin and tissues of her nose and rendered it into crushed and mutilated meat.