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She said she did the only thing she could. She threw a hard elbow at his snout, and caught him flush, stunning the bear and giving her time to escape.

"This bear was in predatory mode," said Jack Kaskey, a state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman. "This was classic predatory behavior. The bear was out to eat her. She had to fight for her life."

The 18-year-old woman, whom wildlife officials refused to identify, escaped with only a set of 4-inch welts on her midsection after the encounter, which wildlife experts say is rare.

"Predatory black bear attacks are extremely rare, and I've never heard of one quite like this, in which someone punches or elbows the bear and is able to get up and run," said Lynn Rogers, a renowned bear behavior expert with the North American Bear Center of Wildlife Research Institute in Minnesota. "It's baffling that, if it was a predatory attack, anyone could escape a bear so easily and without injury."

The attack occurred Sunday at 12:30 p.m. The victim, who lives near the park, was hiking there on Wingdam Trail. She was alone when the attack occurred and no one saw the incident, officials said.

The young woman saw the bear standing on a bridge, which she had just crossed, officials said. As it stood about 30 yards behind her, she starting backing slowly away when she saw the bear and tried to run when it charged her, Kaskey said.

The bruin, a 2- or 3-year-old male, tackled her from behind, Kaskey said.

The woman told officials she managed to pop the bear in the snout with her elbow, startling it enough so that she was able to get up, run about 40 yards and hide behind a tree. She then told officials that she watched as the bruin stood on its hind legs and sniffed the air.

The bear came close by, but didn't find her and eventually wandered off. The woman then ran to her home in Highland Lakes, which is about three-quarters of a mile from where she told officials the attack took place. She lives with her parents, and her father called authorities.

Authorities have now closed the trail where the incident occurred and have set a trap for the bear, Kaskey said. The rest of the park remains open.

It was the latest high-profile bear incident in recent months, coming amid debate over the state's first bear hunt in 33 years, scheduled for December. It also was the second report of an unprovoked bear attack on a human this year; the other occurred on May 20, when a bear swatted at a toddler outside his home in Sparta.

Three days after the Sparta attack, a West Milford man was injured when he jumped on a bear that was fighting with his dog. The man was cited by the DEP for leaving trash out that may have attracted the bruin.

Despite these encounters, the DEP says bear incidents in New Jersey are down from last year. Nuisance and damage complaints have dropped, from 1,069 in 2002 to 784 this year during the same period. The DEP figures may not include all incidents reported to local police agencies.

The complaints may be down overall due to a long, brutal winter that kept bears in their dens longer, as well as an increased awareness in the state's bear country -- north of Route 80 and west of Route 287 -- about how to coexist with the animals, Kaskey said. The bear population in the northwest has increased, ranging between 1,350 and 3,200 bears.

"Maybe the bear education is getting through," Kaskey said. "Maybe people are taking better care of their garbage."

While the number of complaints has dropped, some police say the severity of bear incidents has increased this year. Many Vernon Township residents have stopped calling police for bear sightings, and instead call only about problem bears, like the one that broke into a Vernon home in June, trapping a woman and her two children in a bedroom.

"Now, it's 'they're inside the house' or 'they're acting aggressively in the yard,'" said Vernon Police Chief Roy Wherry.



Staff writers Kristen Alloway and Brian Murray contributed to this report.