Nightfall was approaching fast on Sunday evening as Joshua Owens looked through the wilderness for the mule deer he shot.

Suddenly, the sound of a rustling bush grabbed his attention. It turned out a small creature was making the noise. The Caribou County sheriff’s deputy was startled when he realized the creature was a bear cub.

“I’ve been hunting my entire life,” he said. “I’m also a former Marine. But I was a little rattled seeing a bear that close.”

Owens had spent the afternoon and early evening deer hunting with his wife Holly and his three children — Hunter, 10, Sienna, 6, and Vivienne, 5 — in the Dry Canyon and Slug Creek area approximately 16 miles east of Soda Springs. After wounding a mule deer, they went out into the hills to follow the blood trail.

But the blood trail kept going and going, and the lunar eclipse in the sky was not providing much light to work with. Now with a cub spotted in the area — and possibly its mama — Joshua knew it was time to pack up and take the family home to Bancroft.

It seems like each family member can recall every little detail of what happened next.

Joshua placed Sienna on his shoulders and walked back to the truck alongside Vivienne. Holly and Hunter were behind them, with the 10-year-old carrying the family dog in his arms.

After they approached a clearing, Hunter’s insulin pump started beeping. As Holly stopped to fix her son’s medical device, it soon became clear that she was not the only protective mom in the vicinity.

“We heard this heavy puffing and a galloping sound coming near us,” she recalls. “Then I saw her. I yelled out ‘Bear! Bear! Run! Run! Don’t look back!’”

Joshua’s earlier fears had come true, and when he heard the terrified screams from his wife, he followed her orders, grabbed Vivienne in his arms and made a mad dash to his truck. He needed to secure his children and get his rifle. During the run, young Sienna grabbed her father so tight he was almost choked.

On four legs, the black bear stood as high as Holly’s hips. But when it stood up on its hind legs, it was slightly taller than the petrified human mother, who stands 5’9”.

As Hunter looked on, the beast pushed Holly on her back and bit her.

“The bear pushed her back about 4 feet and she fell down,” Hunter said.

Doctors later told her the bite was an inch away from her femoral artery. When this artery is severed, the blood loss is so quick and heavy that it usually proves to be fatal.

As the bear bit into her, she grabbed a stick and started beating the animal in its face.

“In hindsight, it’s easy to say what you should have done,” she said. “All I knew at the time was if I fought the bear off or kept her attention, the kids would get safely to the truck. She was defending her young, but so was I. I just didn’t know what shape I would be in after it was over.”

Up the trail, Joshua made sure the children were locked in the safe confines of the truck.He then grabbed his .22 rifle and darted back into the wilderness to confront the black bear.

When he found Holly on the trail, she was lying facedown on the ground.

She wasn’t dead. She was heading back to the truck and fell. After the scuffle, the bear let Holly go and disappeared into the darkness.

Still, Joshua wasn’t going to take any chances. After making sure his wife was OK, he let off a few warning shots to make sure the bear wouldn’t come back. After hearing a faint growl in the distance, everything went silent.

“Fish and Game said the attack was more of a warning,” Holly said. “She was saying, ‘get out of my territory.’ But at the time, I didn’t really know that. It was really the scariest moment of my life.”

Joshua escorted his wife back to the truck, but she fainted once on the way there. Holly was coming down from a massive adrenaline rush she experienced during the attack.

“I’ve never experienced adrenaline like that before, and I’m ex-military,” she laughs.

Afterwards, she was treated for the bite wound and scratches on her left calf at Caribou Memorial Hospital in Soda Springs.

Even though she came face-to-face with a defensive black bear in the wild, Holly was quickly released from the hospital and is already back to her normal day-to-day activities. She said if it wasn’t for her husband’s wilderness skills, she might not have survived.

“Without his experience, things could have been catastrophic,” she said.

And she was lucky, too. The last time a human was attacked by a bear in Southeast Idaho occurred in September 2002.

Jason Koller, 29, was mauled by a black bear that weighed over 200 pounds on Stump Peak northeast of Soda Springs. After his father Nolan killed the bear with an arrow through its neck, Jason had to be transported by LifeFlight to Bannock Regional Medical Center, where he recovered from his injuries.

This attack was close in proximity to the location of the Owens’ skirmish with the black bear.

Like in Sunday’s incident, Idaho Fish and Game said Koller accidentally got between a mama bear and its cub, causing the sow to act defensively.

“The reason why black bears attack is because they are surprised,” said Jennifer Jackson, regional conservation educator for Idaho Fish and Game. “Sometimes they are feeding on a carcass or close to their cubs when humans arrive. Those are the usual reasons why black bears attack.”

On Monday, Joshua went back to the scene with Fish and Game officers to explain what happened. Fish and Game officials said their agency will continue to investigate the area for reported black bear activity. But as of Tuesday night, it appears the bears have left the area.

Later, Joshua also found the deer he was tracking right before the attack occurred.

“The hunt was a success,” he said. “But it was also really bad.”