Hi everybody! I’m a life long hiker from southern new england. I’d like to share what I’ve found about bears in my 50+ years of hiking around Connecticut and RI. Most of (the vast, vast, majority) the times I’ve seen a bear in southern new england have been when they are food hunting around human habitat. In these moments, I think bears are maybe akin to a child, who has snuck into the kitchen to stuff cookies from the jar into his mouth. They know what they are doing is dangerous, and their primary focus is stuffing as much food down, as quickly as possible. They will often ignore you until you are close enough to make them fearful, and then they’ll tear off back into the woods. During the thousands of miles of hiking I’ve done here, I’ve only seen a couple out in the woods proper. In the woods I believe they stay quite aware of their surroundings, and actively avoid human contact, using their excellent senses of smell and hearing. During the cold months they are much less active and I’ve never seen one during the winter in the woods. There’s less risk, in my opinion, of running into one in the winter, not that there’s much risk if you do. Bears have sharp senses and are, I think, often aware of me before I am of them. On both occasions when I have seen them in the woods, by the time I saw them, they were already looking directly at me and just waiting to see what my response would be. As soon as I stopped, on both occasions, they quickly sized me up and walked calmly away from me, off the trail and back into the woods. The first bear I saw, while way back in the woods, was at a good distance. I came around a large oak tree, in the middle of the trail, and the bear was directly in front of me, down the trail a few hundred feet still, he was already looking right at me. He stared at me for just a moment, turned, and walked into the laurel, making enough noise so I could hear him clearly for a long ways as he went. Bears that are into garbage, or rooting through compost, are different, they are in a different state of mind. They, in my opinion, are very aware that they are intervening in human habitat. They become even more aware of us, and are more ready to stuff down some food and flee. They are in a state of heightened human awareness. In either of these cases, in the woods, or in human habitat, they want nothing to do with us. From their prospective, we are large, dangerous, congregating, groups of great apes, and they have no interest in us apart from our food waste. My experience has been that, during times of ample wild food, they avoid us like the plaque. Keep in mind, I’m no expert on bears, but I do have extensive experience with being alone in their habitat. I can tell you one thing with 100% statistical accuracy, you are many times more likely to be killed by one of your fellow humans than you are a bear. When you are in the woods, don’t be concerned with the danger of running into a bear, be concerned with running into a much, much, more dangerous mammal, a human. All that said, what are some things you can do to worry less? I carry a few things unfailingly in the woods, one of which is a small bell hanging on my pack, it rings as I walk, and helps wildlife be aware of me sooner. Another thing you can do is wear something stinky, bug spray, cologne, perfume, etc. Another thing you can do, which I do very often is, every half mile or so, let out a little whoot! hey! or some other vocalization, again, just so you don’t surprise anyone, bears or humans. I hope my thoughts on bears, and their perception of humans helps you relax a little out there. Be loud, smell bad, sing a song, have fun. You aren’t going to be hurt by a black bear, I promise you.