British Columbia logger Walter Thomas is still haunted by the smell, sound and the terror of being confronted and attacked by a grizzly bear.
"I was thinking I'm dead,'' he said.
Thomas is the logger who found himself face-to-face with an angry grizzly while working on B.C.'s central coast last week.
His first reaction was to think that his time was up. "I was thinking I'm dead,'' he said.
"He came at me and he knocked me down and I hit him a couple of times."
Related links: Grizzly attacks B.C. man in logging camp
But efforts to defend himself proved to be fruitless as the bear grabbed his arm and started ripping it to shreds.
"He stopped and he looked at me and I was looking at him, not even a foot from my face,'' Thomas said. "I could see my blood dropping out of his mouth.''
The unfortunate logger said he thinks the bear smelled his lunch. "He ran around me, grabbed my pack in his mouth and ripped it from off my back, and he took off down the hill,'' he said.
"I stayed there thinking oh Christ, I don't believe what had just transpired.''
Thomas was eventually rushed to hospital with his arms broken and skin torn off.
Meanwhile, the bear that attacked him has not been found.
Looking back at the horrific experience, Thomas says it has shown him how precious life is and how easily it can be taken away.
'This wasn't my time to go, I guess,'' he said.
With a report by CTV British Columbia's Shannon Paterson
