Wow, great story. I shot one in NH a few years back on the last day with 1 minutes left of legal shooting light and it didn't come close to being as big as yours. You should be proud of your bear. I knew mine was small before I shot it, just didn't know how small it was lol. I'll be back at it on the 17th in NH. I hope to get a shot at something bigger this year. Congrats on your bear!
If you are not baiting, I will give you a tip. I work in a milk factory and have truck drivers coming from northeast kingdom vermont every day, and they were seeing bear almost daily up in the franconia notch. One day a driver saw 7 and saw one mother hit on the side of the road. The drivers said it was the most they had seen in a summer in a while. This is where I was going to hunt after the baiting season was over.