I have so been there! I spent twenty years or so visiting the national Wilderness around Mammoth Lakes, CA. Brown and Grizzly bears abound. Mammoth has its own Bear Whisperer. The locals call him before they call anyone else to deal with some of the issues that occur. The bears are lovely, actually, and only problematic when rookies don’t know what to leave well enough alone and when… and NOT to feed them ‘people food,’ which they don’t much like anyway.

I made ‘friends’ with a lovely bear called Molly, {about the same size you describe} whilst I lived there in 2009. She used to raid the stringers along the shore of Lake Mary, especially those put out by non-local fishermen. It made the locals laugh.

Molly was shot by an idiot from L.A. who should not have had a gun in the first place, illegal as it is in that area, and had no business being so near a wild creature. Ever. Sad. The town was outraged. I probably still am. ;)

Brilliant article! I enjoyed this so much!