In my years of hiking, I have only seen a bear once, and it was at least 100 feet away (with a crowd of people in between the bear in me)! I was in Yellowstone National Park, which has a very large bear population. One other time there was a bear at a popular campsite where I was staying – other people started yelling at it (that’s the best thing to do to scare them away), and it quickly left, so I didn’t see it.
Here are my tips and suggestions to help overcome a fear of bears.
Have you encountered bears while hiking? What did you do to scare it off?