It happened. Many dozens of close encounters with bears nothing overly aggressive. At most we have just scared each other.
We have had this bear hanging around in the timber where we practice shooting the bow. He has never come closer than 30 yards and sticks to the timber. I have only caught a few glimpses of him over the last few years. He has crossed through our camp a few times while we aren't paying attention (getting changed, playing cards, watching trailcam footage) Definitely a sneaky one. He is usually out of there early August, but for whatever reason (there are hardly any berries, he is still around)
On Saturday morning we could hear him crashing around in the timber. He hung around for an hour or two before wandering off.
Saturday evening, he's back. I was out looking for an arrow from a botched shot (apparently 40 yards is out of the question) I could hear him in there probably 20-30 yards from me, but wasn't worried at all, just business as usual. Never had a problem.
I saw my arrow and came down a steep slope in a less than controlled fashion (erosion) and crashed snapped through some branches at the bottom.
For whatever reason, the cracking of the branches "triggered" this bear like a non-gender-neutral word triggers an SJW. At first I heard him react (a few steps, slight movement in my direction) after that it was like a full on truck crashing through the timber until he was just out of the tree line with about 5 yards of brush between us. I scrambled back up the little hill to add some buffer room so I would at least have a half second to fire the bear spray.
That was the end of it. I know the bear could not have winded "what made the crack" (he was upwind) but where he stopped my boots had been earlier.
So what the heck happened? Mistaken identity? He thought I sounded like another big clumsy bear? Maybe a deer? Full disclosure, I have messed with some of the saplings he snapped earlier over the spring/summer which might have ticked him off.