Back in the early 80's as a much younger person with the associated lack of judgement, I went on a backpack trip into an area that was posted as closed, due to a high concentration of grizzly bears at that time of year. I wanted to see a grizzly in the wild, so by my youthful logic I had concluded that it wouldn't happen. This was all before bear spray and I had left my 270 behind after the first day, since I got tired of carrying it and needed my hands to travel off trail in some steep terrain. In our youthful wisdom we also stored and ate much food in camp including a watermelon and a jar of peanut butter. Packs were very heavy. After a couple days carrying packs we set up camp in a nice area from which we would day hike up a high mountain. Next day we began our climb.
I tended to watch my feet as I was hiking and not focus proper attention on my surroundings. We had just resumed our climb when my buddy reversed course at a sprint with no explanation, other than Just Run!. I wasn't too concerned. Figured we might have run into a forest service person and at worst were going to get in trouble for being where we were not supposed to be. The next breathless shout I heard was Bear! Once we had gotten behind a large boulder, I turned and looked to saw a huge grizzly running at an amazing speed away from us. Buddies German Shepherd following in pursuit.
The bear looked at the dog, which backed off and my thought was oh no the bear is going to follow the dog back to us. I should have been looking for a tree to climb or getting ready to play dead, but we were mostly above tree line anyway so not much chance of climbing a tree. I had unsnapped my sheath knife for all the good that would have done. Adrenaline dumped and heart pounding I watched and thankfully the bear kept going up to a saddle above us where it slowed down gave us a look and then disappeared beyond view. After collecting or wits (few though they were) and waiting for heart rate to go back to normal we decided to continue the ascent.
Ended up running into a group of three young bears further up the mountain, close enough I could see their tongues and hear their breath. They went one way and us the other thankfully. Made it to the top of the mountain, enjoyed a short break and amazing views, took pics, etc and then as the sun was starting to go behind the horizon, began to work our way back to camp.
The trip out took all night. At one point we were stopped taking a break when my buddy saw a shadow approaching in the dark and told me to not move. What? Bear! We waited frozen as it approached and we thankfully realized it was just the dog. The dog would often run off and do its thing then come find us. We would hear it barking at times and not know what it had encountered. This always gave me cause for concern.
Now having actually confirmed the existence of grizzly bears in the area we approached our well stocked camp with some concern. Thankfully no bears had gotten into our food at camp. Thankfully our lack of judgement only resulted in a memorable experience with no bear attacks.
