Originally Posted by
caddisguy
Your non-day-trip spot sounds a lot better. Some human traffic is fine. Bears still live in those areas and know how to deal with that stuff. They usually just hear a vehicle, duck in the bush then come back out when it passes (funny I do the same thing) I prefer hearing vehicles in the distance though and only seeing the odd one.
Another thing worth noting is that when bears detect you or even if you scare the crap out of them, they usually don't go for. They hide and wait for your to pass. I can only recall a couple bears out of dozens of such encounters that ran for the next time zone... on average, 15 yards into the nearest cover and most of the time they will come back out in short order.
The other thing worth mentioning is that in that kind of terrain if you're poking in and out of feeding spots it's going to happen pretty fast... every step is a different view and 10-15 yard windows open up each step. If the wind is right and the bear is focused on munching you'll get time to evaluate the situation and draw back... it will probably be close up but still take your time... if it's meant to be great and if not then it's a cool story too.