re: Since bears have been in the news lately. Have you ever seen one

last week in my parent's backyard in northern Nevada, eating apples off their tree

All over pointe coupee parish

Sure. Numerous times while hiking the AT here in Virginia.

There's a bear that always shows up down around my pond during the summer. There's thousands of acres of timberland behind us and we're on a ridge between two rivers so there's room to roam.

Good grief yes. I lived in Asheville NC for almost 20 years. Bears were a real nuisance in town and along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

I've seen them from afar several times over the past few years, but the closest I ever got to one was right when I moved here.

I was setting up an event space for some pre-wedding party at the club's "fish camp" on one of the forks of the Gallatin. Getting down there was a bitch, a barely single lane dirt road with a frick ton of switchbacks, took about an hour to make it. Got dropped off with all the supplies and set things up.

Knowing I had plenty of time, and there was no inventory for the booze, I sat down on a chair by the creek and drank a couple of beers. While I was chilling, a big ol grizzly stepped out of the treeline across the creek, maybe 60-80 yards away.

He stared at me, I stare at him. This went on for about half a minute. He waddled back in to the woods.

I didn't have a sidearm or bearspray, so I would have been another news item had he wanted to get froggy.

Driving down HWY 90 from Lafayette, right before Patterson we saw a black bear sitting in the grass on his haunches watching traffic go by. Wish I had to time to get a pic.

Pt Washington State Forest surrounds our neighborhood. I’ve seen more black bears feasting on trash can cuisine here in our community than I’ve seen while biking on the forest trails. Dang tourists pile trash up and don’t secure the cans. Saw a mom & cub last week at 2pm looking for a late lunch.

Last year we went to Yellowstone and hiked Slough Creek. A big black bear came out of the forest pretty close to the trail. It caught wind of us and bolted back into the forest before I could snap a good pic.

Same trip in the Tetons we took a boat across Jenny Lake to hike Cascade Canyon, and basically right as we got off the boat, we came across this one munching on some leaves:










Also last year, we went on the little hike by the GSMNP visitor center. We were the only ones on the trail, and came up on about 7 or 8 bears grazing the forest. 3 or 4 babies, 3 or 4 adults. They got pretty damn close to us but they didn't pay us too much attention. Was really cool.















Also on that same trip we were hiking the Abrams Falls trail, and came up on a big black bear munching on some leaves. Watched it for several minutes until it moved on. Was really cool. Got some pretty good shots:

July in Grand Teton NP near Jenny Lake, young bear brown in color about 25 yards away on a trail tearing apart a rotten log. The daughter and I spooked it and it took off like it was shot out of a cannon. We turned around and got the heck out of there. Didn't have the grizzly bear hump.