Knifemaker describes terrifying moment he was attacked by a mother bear

• WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

A knifemaker was attacked twice by a mother bear in Montana - and lived to tell the tale on Facebook.

Todd Orr, 50, wrote a post on Sunday describing his terrifying bear encounter the day before.

He was hiking near Ennis, Montana when he spotted the grizzly bear and her cubs on the trail in an open meadow.

Orr had been careful to holler 'Hey bear' every 30 seconds to signal himself and avoid surprising any bears. But the mother bear charged him anyway.

He tried to yell at her, hoping she would realize he was a human and would turn back. He attempted to repel her with bear spray, in vain.

Orr ended up with his face in the dirt and wrapped his arms around his neck, trying to protect himself.

"She was on top of me biting my arms, shoulders and backpack. The force of each bite was like a sledge hammer with teeth," Orr wrote in his post .

"She would stop for a few seconds and then bite again. Over and over. After a couple minutes, but what seemed an eternity, she disappeared."

Orr got up and headed back towards his truck, which was parked three miles below. He checked his injuries and noticed several puncture wounds on his arms and shoulder.
After five or ten minutes, Orr heard the bear again.

"She either followed me back down the trail or cut through the trees and randomly came out on the trail right behind me.

"Whatever the case, she was instantly on me again," he wrote.

Wondering whether he'd survive a second attack, Orr once again put his arms around his neck, and kept his face tight against the ground.

"One bite on my forearm went through to the bone and I heard a crunch. My hand instantly went numb and wrist and fingers were limp and unusable," he wrote.

"The sudden pain made me flinch and gasp for breath. The sound triggered a frenzy of bites to my shoulder and upper back."

Orr stayed silent whole the bear continued biting him. He felt a gash open above his ear and blood trickling onto his face and eyes.

"I thought this was the end. She would eventually hit an artery in my neck and I would bleed out in the trail... But I knew that moving would trigger more bites so a laid motionless hoping it would end," he wrote.

The bear finally stopped biting and stood on top of him, crushing him. Orr didn't dare move and the bear finally went away.

He tried to grab his pistol in case the bear was still nearby but he couldn't see due to the blood in his eyes.

But he couldn't find the pistol and realized the gun had landed five feet from him during the attack.

Orr gathered his belongings and started down the trail one more time.

"I couldn't believe I had survived two attacks. Double lucky!" he wrote.

A short video he recorded after the attack shows him with blood all over one side of his face, recounting the attack.

He took a look at his injuries and estimated he could walk for 45 minutes without losing too much blood.

Orr wanted to put as much distance as possible between him and the bear.

He reached his truck, put some jackets over the seat and drove to town. Along the way, he found a rancher and asked him to call the hospital.

Orr called his girlfriend and asked her to bring him clean clothes.

He made it to the hospital shortly after and had to ask an officer to undo his seat belt because his left arm was numb.

The officer was impressed that Orr had buckled up despite the circumstances, Orr said in his post.

He stayed in the hospital for eight hours, getting stitches on the puncture wounds an tears to his arms and shoulders. An x-ray showed he had a chipped bone in his forearm.

Orr had a five-inch gap on his head, which will leave a scar.

By Sunday morning, more bruises had appeared, some of them shaped like claws, on his lower back and butt.

"Not my best day, but I'm alive," Orr wrote.

State guidelines in Montana say that if a grizzly bear charges, the first option is to remain standing and try to use pepper spray. As a last resort, people can lie flat face down (like Orr did) or curl up in a ball.

People should not move or make noise until they are sure the bear has left.