Back in 1989 I was hunting squirrels outside of Mt. Home, AR. I was walking a trail through woods, watching the trees, when suddenly a black bear stepped out onto the trail, maybe 10 feet away. I was armed with a 22 pump, loaded with shorts, so in one move I shouted, pivoted and began running back the way I had been walking. After 20 yards, I looked back, and the bear was running just as hard in the opposite direction.

Have seen several in Cades Cove, TN, all from the car. One a mother and two cubs.

Maybe 11 years ago, there was a black bear roaming around the west side of Meridian. One afternoon, I saw him in a field, minding his own business. There were photos of him n the paper, walking down the middle of a parking lot on MJCC, with cars on both sides. I figured he was going to class. Eventually reports of seeing him in yards on that side of town died down. Have no idea what happened to him.

Took a group of scouts to Philmont scout ranch in Cimarron, Arizonia in 1993. We were hiking a trail and saw a big grizzly about 200 yards from where we were on the trail. We were hiking down the bottom of a small valley and he was about halfway up a small ridge that ran the length of our planned trek that day. We kept going, I talked with my scouts about bear safety (we had several cans of bear spray) and I bet I heard him 50 times over the rest of the day. That night, I tied our bear bag (food) as high as I could get it and twice as far from our camp as we normally did. For the next two days, all I could think about was what I would do if he was following us. Never saw him again. That was fine with me.

edited to add:

Funny story. I had a little old gray haired lady who was one of my inspectors at Baxter when we were in MT. Home. Her husband was a preacher and they lived really close to the buffalo river, below Yellville. She was always complaining about the bears trying to get into their trash cans, which they kept in a bear proof enclosure. One day she said she had taken the trash out the night before and encountered four black bears at the trash bin. I asked her what did she do? She said, "Like always, I threw rocks at them until they left." That is how rural Arkansas folks do it, I guess.

This post was edited on 10/3/23 at 4:16 pm