ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The man credited with saving the life of a fellow mountain-bike racer after she was mauled by a bear thought at first someone had merely stopped for a bathroom break in the middle of the 24-hour event.
Early Sunday, endurance cyclist Peter Basinger spotted a bike dumped in the bushes of Rover’s Run trail in Anchorage’s Far North Bicentennial Park.
A little farther on, he spotted a person sitting in the middle of the trail, covered with blood.
“They just turned around and said, ‘bear,’ ” Basinger told the Anchorage Daily News.
The person was 15-year-old Petra Davis, a girl Basinger has known for years and coached in cross-country skiing.
The teen suffered head, neck, leg and torso wounds, including damage to a lung, but is expected to recover. Officials believe she was attacked by a startled mother grizzly bear who may not have heard the girl’s approach on the trail next to a noisy stream.
“The family of Petra Davis would like people to know that she is still being treated in the critical-care unit, but she is expected to make a full recovery,” her father, Mark Davis, said in prepared statement. He asked for privacy “until Petra can tell her story in her own words.”
Basinger did not recognize the girl on the trail. She motioned behind herself, as if to indicate the bear might be nearby. Basinger picked her up and carried her to a stand of cottonwood trees, where he thought they might be safer.
As he considered what to do next, the badly injured girl handed him her cellphone.
“She had it in her hand,” he said. “I thought, ‘Oh, thank God, we have a phone.’ ”
After twice failing to connect to 911, and finally recognizing Davis, Basinger called a friend, Greg Matyas, a race organizer, who was helping at an aid station.
Matyas and an emergency medical technician volunteer took off toward the attack scene, called 911 and gave dispatchers Davis’ cell number.
“911 called me back,” Basinger said. “I started trying to explain to them where we were.”
Ten minutes after Basinger found Davis, another bike racer, Will Ross, rode up. Basinger told Ross to ride to a nearby road, meet the paramedics and guide them in.
Matyas and the EMT arrived and rushed to aid Petra. When more emergency responders arrived, they waited for Anchorage police to provide an armed escort.
