ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A 15-year-old boy on a wilderness expedition for emotionally troubled youths woke up to find a 400-pound brown bear with a bad attitude sitting at his feet.

After trying to back out of the tent, the boy was bitten in the forearm and decided to fight back, punching the bear, Alaska state trooper Adam Benson said Monday. When the teen tried to run, the bear bit him below his ribs.

The boy punched the bear again, and again she let him go. He remembered an air horn in his gear, and blew it in the bear's muzzle, waking others in the camp, said Steve Prysunka, director of the camp program.

The bear turned and ran after counselors blasted her with pepper spray.

"I think he is the biggest, baddest thing in the woods. He punched the bear," Prysunka said.