Bob, in the last two years, we have seen the presence of bear sign explode, and at the same time, the deer sign has plummeted. It seems like the minute the bears moved in, the deer skeedaddled. The sighting of mature does without fawns has become commonplace.
I couldn't make it up there for bear season, but my Dad and brothers went. It really ticked me off that although the sign is everywhere, not a single shot was fired that they could hear.
We are probably going to revisit an old haunt of ours in another section of the ANF next season. I really think the GC should make a special one year of concurrent bear/deer season to get the bear numbers under control up there.

All of this is really nothing new though, as we have always adapted by hunting various areas up there in response to changing conditions in the 30+ years that I have been going up there. The absolute worst deer hunting we ever saw was always Emporium though, no matter how many times we gave it a shot.. RIGHT SPROUL?? LOL!