Published August 17, 2026 10:11AM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
On August 10, Jackson, Wyoming resident Maggie Schwartz was hiking on Teton Pass, following a trail she hikes nearly every day, when a black bear knocked her face-down into the brush.<\/p>\n
The bear proceeded to bite Schwartz on her butt.<\/p>\n
\u201cI must have flipped myself over onto my back,\u201d Schwartz told Outside<\/em>, \u201cbecause I remember being on my back and her continuing towards me. I put my feet up on her chest and was screaming and fumbling around.\u201d<\/p>\n Schwartz reached for her bear spray, got both hands on the bottle, and then sprayed it directly into the animal\u2019s face.<\/p>\n \u201cShe turned around and left immediately,\u201d said Schwartz. Her Fitbit chart from that evening shows a brief but large spike in her heart rate.<\/p>\n Schwartz was treated at the emergency room in Jackson for three puncture wounds and scratches on her thighs, back, neck, and elbow, some from the bear and some, she suspects, from landing in brush. Her bites were left open rather than stitched, and she was given antibiotics and a tetanus shot.<\/p>\n Schwartz, a lawyer, and her mother both grew up in Jackson. They hike the History Trail<\/a>, a 3.4-mile out-and-back route, together most days in summer, with their Bernese mountain dog sisters Marta and Heidi.<\/p>\n Schwartz says four things were different during her August 10 hike. Her mother, who hikes with her most days, was at an event. Schwartz decided to hike all the way up to the lake, higher than usual. She wore hiking shoes instead of her usual Chacos. Prior to departing her car, she finally figured out how to use her bear spray.<\/p>\n She had always thought bear spray holsters were absurdly tight, impossible to rip off your waistband in a hurry. That evening she realized she\u2019d had the apparatus backward\u2014the holster stays on, and only the can comes out.<\/p>\n \u201cI was laughing at myself for how dumb that was, but I practiced it a couple times and it just slid in and out super easy,\u201d she said. \u201cI was making a note to tell my mom how silly we\u2019ve been about that.\u201d<\/p>\n She set out around 5:30 P.M. on a warm, slightly smoky evening. The dogs were within arm\u2019s reach when they veered off the trail, sniffing in the bush. Schwartz saw something black and fluffy, and thought for a second it was another dog. She realized it was a cub, and determined that the mother had to be nearby.<\/p>\n That\u2019s when the mother bear charged, mouth open and growling. Schwartz guesses she was no more than six feet away. The bear knocked her down, and then Schwartz sprayed her in the face. Her aim, she said, was \u201cless the sign of my gun slinging skills and more a sign of proximity.\u201d<\/p>\n Schwartz still isn\u2019t sure how she had time to reach the bear spray bottle from her back, with the mother so close. \u201cI\u2019m thinking maybe she looked up to see where the dogs were, which gave me the chance,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The bear fled downhill. Schwartz went up the hill. \u201cI wasn\u2019t really feeling pain at that point,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Later, Schwartz reached for her phone in her back pocket to call her mother. She felt her torn shorts and the puncture wounds. She walked down the Old Pass Road because it is wider and usually busier than the History Trail.<\/p>\n A local ski patroller named Johnny was in the parking lot. \u201cI was really embarrassed that the bite was on my butt and that this had just happened. I didn\u2019t really want to show him, but he was so professional,\u201d Schwartz said.<\/p>\n He told her she needed the emergency room, but she wanted to see her parents. He loaded her into his van with gauze and drove her to the Old Wilson Schoolhouse, about five minutes away, which is where her mother was attending an event.<\/p>\n When her mother came out, \u201cI just started bawling,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cI completely lost it.\u201d<\/p>\n Her mother drove her to the hospital, where they learned that one of the punctures had bear hair embedded so deep in the tissue that the nurse could not remove it. So, she removed a section of flesh.<\/p>\n Nobody at the hospital could work out why there were only three punctures when a bite like that should leave four. The Wyoming Game and Fish found the answer the next morning when they discovered Schwartz\u2019s phone with a tooth mark in it. It had been in the back pocket the bear tore off.<\/p>\nA Surprise Meeting With Cubs and a Mother Bear<\/h2>\n
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What Hikers Should Know About Hiking in Bear Country<\/h2>\n