By Michael R. Shea

An Editor’s Note From Tim Romano: As a fisherman and whitewater-rescue trained individual watching snippets of the Canol adventure have made me cringe at times. Not just for the sheer brutality of the trip, but there are a few instances when safety precautions in or near the water are not adequate. To the viewers of this specific episode: You should know to never, ever try what you're about to see unless it's a do or die situation, which for the two on this trip it nearly was. Some things to consider:

- Crossing a river without a PFD is dangerous when you're near help. When you’re days away from rescue, this could spell disaster.

- When "pendulum swinging" the raft, Jim wraps his hand around the rope and walks to boat down. Please don't do this. Anchor the boat to a tree or rock and let it swing. Bad things happen when you're holding onto hundreds of pounds being pulled by the force of rushing water.

- You see them cross a deep, powerful river with a backpack on and a rope tied to it. First, never cross a river with your pack on and around your shoulders. Take it off and put it above your head or swim with it next to you. Should you fall and a piece of the backpack gets stuck in the rocks or a piece of wood there is a high potential for drowning. It's very, very difficult to get out of. Additionally, a rope attached to the pack presents more dangers. Not only do you have a pack that can get stuck, you also have 100+ feet of material that can wedge anywhere in the river bottom or woody debris. If that happens, it will knock off your feet and the force of the water will hold you down.

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by Dave Maccar

Charging wildlife isn’t the first thing on a mountain biker’s mind in the heat of a race, but the animals don’t know that.

Evan van der Spuy was racing in the 38 km Time Freight MTB Express mountain bike race at Albert Falls Dam, 20km outside the city of Pietermaritzburg in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa for Team Jeep South Africa over the weekend.

His teammate, Travis Walker, was in third place with a GoPro camera mounted on his bike, and captured this amazing footage below of Evan, who was in second place until this red hartebeest (a member of the antelope family) had something to say about it.

Yes, the hit was as hard as it looks. Evan was stabilized with a neck brace and taken to the hospital for overnight observation. He sustained a minor concussion, whiplash and some bruising on his head where his helmet imploded on impact.

F&S spoke to Evan today to get his take on the events behind this video, which is rapidly going viral.

Evan said he is recovering well, and feels extremely lucky.

“Luckily I walked away with just a bit of whiplash and a concussion, considering what happened,” he says. “I saw the animal moving to cross the road in front of me, but when I saw how close it really was, I was shocked. Then, from the moment it hit me I was unconscious. I actually don’t know what happened from then.”
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--Chad Love

A Canadian moose hunter is out of the hospital after fending off (and ultimately killing) a charging black bear.

From this story on lotwenterprise.com:

A Kenora area hunter is lucky to be alive after fighting off a bear attack, Sept. 26. The 48-year-old man was treated for puncture wounds to his arm, shoulder and neck at Lake of the Woods district hospital and released later the same afternoon. The bear was mortally wounded during the encounter and did not survive. A Ministry of Natural Resources official credits the man for taking action to save his life.

"It was a dangerous situation," affirmed MNR Lake of the Woods supervisor Leo Heyens. "He did all the right things. If he hadn't fired an arrow or fought back, yelling and making himself look big, it could have been more serious."
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--Dave Maccar

A tragic update from Montana: the Lincoln County Sherriff’s office says a hunter attacked by a bear last Friday after shooting it on the north Idaho-Montana border died of a gunshot wound, not from injuries inflicted by the 400-pound grizzly.

According to this story on IdahoStatesman.com, when Steve Stevenson of Nevada was attacked by the grizzly in the Buckhorn Mountain area, his hunting partner, Ty Bell, shot the bear several times in an effort to save Stevenson.

It is likely one of those shots passed through the bear and hit Stevenson in the chest, killing him, according to the Lincoln County Coroner, Steve Schnackenberg.

Steve Stevenson, 39, of Winnemucca, Nev., was attacked by the bear in the Buckhorn Mountain area of the North Idaho-Montana border last Friday.

Results from a Montana State Crime Lab autopsy released Friday showed Stevenson suffered one gunshot to his chest, officials from the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office said. Lincoln County Coroner Steve Schnackenberg, who viewed Stevenson's body before it was autopsied, told The Idaho Statesman he saw clear signs of the hunter having been attacked by the bear, including bites and scratch marks.

"We're pretty sure the bullet passed through the bear before it got to him," Schnackenberg said, declining to say why. "We're pretty sure of that."
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--Dave Maccar

A hunter determined to track down a deer got separated from his friends on Saturday morning in Trinity County, CA. He finally found his way back to his truck…after 86 hours.

From this AP story via mercurynews.com:
Twenty-five-year-old Evan Cutting was hunting with a group of friends when he got separated from them while pursuing a deer around 11 a.m. Saturday.

Trinity County sheriff's deputies unsuccessfully searched for Cutting for two days, then suspended the search Monday night.

Sheriff's officials say Cutting somehow managed to return to his truck Tuesday night and called family and friends.
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--Dave Maccar

Two hunters going after black bears along the Idaho-Montana border mistakenly shot a grizzly and one of the men paid with his life. Steve Stevenson, 39, of Nevada yelled to draw the wounded, 400-pound grizzly away from his hunting partner when it charged them and was mauled to death.

From this story on Missoulan.com:
"They both shot it and it kept coming," Steve Stevenson's mom, Janet Price, said on Saturday. "Steve yelled at it to try and distract it, and it swung around and took him down. It's what my son would have done automatically, for anybody."

The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office in Montana said Stevenson, of Winnemucca, Nev., died Friday after 20-year-old Ty Bell wounded what he thought was a black bear and the two men tracked it into thick cover along the Idaho-Montana border where it attacked at about 10 a.m. Friday.
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