Bear facts

WASILLA — Bear sightings are relatively common in Alaska, but on Seward Meridian Parkway? Not two miles from Wal-Mart?

Not so much.

Dave Smith said he saw a grizzly there Monday morning and that a silver Buick hit it shortly after 11 a.m. right where the road crosses the creek between Wasilla and Mud lakes

“It got him up on the hood and then he jumped off of there after clawing a few times like he was climbing up a hill,” Smith said.

He said the woman driving the Buick hit the brakes and flung the bear off her hood. The bear got up, jumped off the road into the water and swam off toward Wasilla Lake.

Sgt. Kelly Swihart with the Wasilla Police Department said he went to the area to investigate. He didn’t find blood, hair, a bear carcass, broken car parts, a disabled car or anything else that would confirm the bear had been hit by a car.

But he did find bear tracks, so he can confirm at least that there was a bear in the area.

“It doesn’t surprise me. There are a lot of wooded areas right in there; there are fish that are swimming in the creek from Wasilla Lake,” he said. “It’s not really surprising, but it is unusual.”

Bear encounters, he said, are more common on the other side of town where Wasilla borders Meadow Lakes. That’s where the bear calls tend to come from, anyway, though there haven’t been that many in recent years.

Swihart said he drove through the area to see if he could find the bear but came up empty. He and Sgt. Jean Achee also talked to area homeowners, both to see if they could get a read on where the bruin went and to warn locals that a bear might be around.

“If it had been hit by a car and was still alive, that creates its own problems, obviously,” he said.

But all indications seemed to be that the bear is fine and that it just wandered off.

The lack of hair and car parts also squares with Smith’s story. He said the Buick was moving relatively slowly when it hit the bear. He had his daughter Megan in the car and neither saw damage to the silver Buick or injury to the bear.

“It didn’t hurt her car. (The driver) was shaken up pretty darn good, but nothing happened,” he said. “I don’t think the bear got hurt but I’ve never been hit by a car.”

Like Achee and Swihart, Smith spent some time driving through the nearby neighborhoods to see if he could find the bear. He said he went up to one house and talked to the homeowner. Together they walked into the man’s backyard.

“We walked down to the lake and then looked around and then we realized we didn’t have a weapon with us,” so they beat a hasty retreat, Smith said.

All-in-all, Smith said, it was an interesting experience. No one got hurt and he and his daughter got some excitement.

“She got to see her first grizzly, right there on Seward Meridian,” he said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.