Dave Schwab wanted to thank two Kenora area residents for saving his life, following a bear attack at the end of September.

Schwab, of Winnipeg, was grateful the two individuals responded quickly.

"At that point, I was totally spent physically, emotionally," says Schwab, during a short ceremony at city hall.

"I mean the adrenaline rush... This bear... I had some pretty significant wounds to my leg and my elbow. I don't think I could've fought that bear off again," he says.

Schwab was attacked by a bear on the Rice Lake Road at the end of September. Fortunately, Steve Halverson and Jake Fafard were nearby, and they responded right away to calls for help.

"According to the MNR biologist I talked to, this bear displayed all of the characteristics of a predator. He was after a meal. He wasn't curious, and I was it," Schwab says, as he described what happened that day.

"I fought the thing off three times and kept going towards my cabin. I started yelling for help, when I got about 200 metres from my cabin. Miraculously, these guys heard me. Somehow they sensed an urgency in my shouts for help, because they didn't come walking up the road to see what was going on. They came ripping up the road in their truck," Schwab continues.

Jake Fafard hauled Schwab into the truck, gave him water and Halverson drove to the Lake of the Woods District Hospital -- passing on double-lines and driving like a 'terror on the road' -- in order to get help quickly.

"I was bleeding. I had muscle coming up through -- I'm not trying to be gross -- the incisor bites," Schwab says.

"I really thank these guys. The award and the recognition is something they really deserve and they're worthy of."

Halverson and Fafard were special guests for a short ceremony at city hall November 12.