Soaked to the bone and stalked by a bear Trevor Miller knew he had to make a run for it.
Armed with a stick and a pocket knife, a dog on his shoulder and another under his arm, Miller had been waist-deep in Crocker Lake at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park for more than two hours.
It started when Miller, 42, was sitting on a picnic table and something hit him from behind.
When he got up and turned around a black bear was staring him down, front paws on the table. Miller panicked and screamed for miniature schnauzer Spyro and Jack Russel mix Puzzle to run for the lake.
Puzzle ran the other way, the bear pinning her quickly to the ground.
Miller kicked the bear, grabbed the dog and ran into the water.
Safe for a time, the bear eventually went into the lake after the three.
That was the second of three times Miller had to hit the bear, this time with a stick he had snapped from a floating log.
"He got close and I just smacked him as hard as I could on his nose," Miller said.
The bear ran back out of the water, feigning disinterest, and began eating grass or sniffing around. But every time Miller tried to get out, the bear chased him back in. At one point the bear even disappeared into the woods giving Miller a false sense of hope.
"He was always looking for new ways to get me," Miller said.
Although he had yelled a couple of times, Miller didn't want cries for help to endanger anyone else. And so he waited.
With the bear finally looking disinterested, Miller and the dogs ran straight for a trail that led to another trail before bringing him back to the main road. A rush of relief came over him thinking that the worst of it was finally over when Miller looked back.
"I look over my shoulder and the bear's running down the road," Miller said Wednesday recalling his weekend nightmare. "My heart just sank. I knew I just had to run"
Miller turned to face the bear raising his arms and yelling, sending the animal into the bush.
But it returned.
Less than six feet between them, Miller saw the bear staring at him.
"He was just watching me and walking towards me," Miller said.
That's when Spyro, a happy-go-lucky seven-year-old dog that Miller hails as a hero, stepped between them. In the blink of an eye the bear snatched Spyro and dragged him into the bush. Miller wanted to chase after the bear, but he knew he couldn't. It was now or never to escape the bear.
"He did that for me," Miller said. "I could feel him telling me that, to just run now."
Miller didn't even know that the hit from behind was actually puncture wounds from a bear bite until the OPP told him.
"It's no big deal, a little bit sore," he said.
Instead, the greatest pain is losing his niece's dog Spyro, a constant companion for hikes around the region over the years. Heading into the bush isn't something Miller can do right now.
"I'm scared honestly."
As for the bear, it's been destroyed. Miller said he's been told some bears stalk humans, although it's uncommon. He's convinced that the dogs were never the bear's target as it always seemed to be fixated on him.
"I don't in the end blame the bear. I don't blame the park. It's just nature," he said. "I'm just lucky I had Spyro there. He sacrificed himself for me and I know that for a fact."
