At the camp I worked at I was walking back to my cabin one night after dark. To my right I heard huffing and a large animal moving that I knew had to be a bear. Flicked my flashlight on while throwing my arms in the air and yelling. The medium sized bear ran right past me and up into a tree beside me. About 30 seconds later one of the camp owners pulls in in their car and parks right below tree. I said "You don't want to park there..." She says her name, and tells me why she's allowed to park there (Being an owner of the camp).I say " I know who you are, but there's a bear fifteen feet above your car, and he's unhappy." I shined the light to show her.... Well, she moved her car promptly. I stayed guard on the bear to make sure no kids got hurt, while waiting on a maintenance guy to bring the pepper spray. At one point I decided to flick my light off. Immediately i heard a loud scraping sound. Flicked light back on and bear was on the ground staring at me. He took off up the hill then. Interesting expeience. I never thought for a second he'd come down that tree in a split second like that.
-Jake

they come out of trees a lot easier than they will go up them, we pull the dogs back 10 feet, scratch or peck on the tree with a stick, they will come down now! grabbed one in the back end once as he came down, immediately his jaws snapped where I hand was a millisecond before that.
RR

we were running in training season once, we had ran the same big ole grouchy 350# boar every night for a week, he'd run till he got tired hit a tree, wait for us to catch the dogs, come down, walk 20 feet and set down, the last night we ran him we were catching dogs as he hung on the tree just above our heads. well we had all the dogs caught except 2 pups, old blue, my hammer bluetick who was at that time 9 months old watched the bear come down, walk across the ditch and set down, wanted a better look at him, walked over and from 6 feet away sniffed the air, then let out the loudest booger bark you ever heard and the bear rushed him, blue knowing that I took care of him figured I could help him out of the mess so here he came running straight to me bear not far behind, I did the situation assessment and instantly became a vapor trail, th guy with me was between me and the bear, blue took an exit stage right.
I looked back and the bear was gaining on my companion, I pulled out my blue max spotlight, put it on the bear and ran towards it screaming like a ruptured indian, the bear veered left and took off. my hunting partner said "man I was starting to get worried, thought we were gonna have to outrun him" as I was putting blue on the lead he asked "weren't you scared at all"
I replied "nope, cause all I had to do was outrun you" ......he never hunted with me again!
RR

I got a laugh outta that RR!! Thanks

I was fully amazed at how quickly he came out of the tree. One second he was up there, the next he was on the ground. Really impressive.
-Jake

Last year was my first year Fly Fishing in Alaska and we saw tons of bear tracks. Luckily no bear as they were still high eating berries waiting for the Salmon die-off. A few around but no encounters along the lines of the stories I have heard. The old joke about being faster than the slowest guy might ring true but in reality are you really gonna run while your buddy is being attacked.

So far I have been offered 50 cal and 44 mag pistols to carry. "If you want to carry that thing go ahead"...just extra weight. You don't stand much of a chance shooting a charging bear with that.

Have to rely on awareness, local news, noise, smells, scat, tracks, and common sense I guess along with a good can of bear spray. The stats I read favored the outcome on encounters of people using a spray vs. Guns. Need to look that one up again. Ones using guns that wounded the animal were hurt worse.

Saw one walk in front of the truck last Oct and my buddy got out to take a PIC. That thing ran FAST like a cat and it was a good size Grizzly so I can imagine that running towards us. Saw it bolt 100 yards to a tree line.

I am still hunting Cow Elk right now this and last year preparing for a Trophy Bull hunt I have scheduled in 2016 and all I can tell you is that I am "Bear Aware!"

Thank you for posting all these stories as they provide great insight.

I remembered another bear adventure of sorts. I have an old wirehair (pictured below) who was something in his youth. He really couldn't get the idea of leaving porcupines alone. One day in November just before our rifle deer season opens. I was running him and a husky now passed. The wirehair chased a porcupine into a blow down. He caught the porky and a bear came out pretty fast right passed me. The husky chased it down, and treed it without so much as a bark. Pretty impressive for a sled dog.

I forget how many quills I had to pull out. But the bear stayed in the tree the whole time. Maybe he went back to sleep.
ATB

We got done with a long deer drive and, my cousin, son & i were waiting for the other drivers to come out on the trail, behind us. We noticed my 14-15yr old Daughter at 60 yards away still standing (sitting) with her gun pointing steady like she was ready to shoot. Cousin Davey jokingly commented that she sure is a diligent stander, as the drive was done and we were close & talking loud enough for her to hear us, yet she was still poised n ready. As we turned to walk towards her a nice bear charged from the thick woods directly at her, she could've touched it as it blew by her! She said it was there long before we came out and she thought it might be a bear or a black deer lol. She showed good nerves of steel and patience. She was afraid it might attack her, but knew it wasn't bear season, and was ready, but didn't shoot. The bear was just as scared as her.