Thanks for the feedback guys, Hiker, I'm hunting GMU 43. The reason I posed this question was because hiking in last year we came across a fresh bear scat. I was on the trail at 9000'. We are normally climbing up to 10,000-11,000 ft. I just figured we were too high for bear at that time of year. I think it's like patchnball stated in that if I have a permit I'll never have the opportunity to use it and if I don't we'll run smack dab into a 'biggin'! Thanks again for the responses.