Blood,
I've watched some shows on Bear hunting in NC (down by the coast) and am pretty sure that chasing with dogs is the predominant method down there. Some very thick country it looked like. You need to locate some hunters there that got dogs and love to chase em'. They'd probably be willing to let you go as most of them kind of have a "more the merrier" type attitude and just love to have the dogs workin'. Post your request down in the southeast forum on this website and ask around (or call around)in NC to sporting goods stores, dnr, etc to get going.