I would summarize all the info you have received into the three main things. Bear **** being my first priority, then food and cover equally. We have found as a gang that if bears find a good food source they seem to stay put. If I can' t find crap, I' ll keep moving. Around here (south central PA) the bears seem to run the top of the mountain. That' s also where they seem to crap the most. Last year while scouting the day before, we found a pile of crap at the base of the " steep" and on Monday we killed a bear probably not a hundred yards from that spot. I would also like to add the fact that we have killed numerous bears in the same hollow through out the years. We hunt in a gang and we' ve killed half of the 12 bears that we' ve killed in the same spot. We' ve been hunting bear for about ten years and we normally kill one each year. Last year in two days we killed two and hit another that unfortuantely got away. There' s normally around five to six of us hunting in a group, so I think we' ve been very fortunate. Glad to help, and good luck.