I live in Oregon, where the black bear population is generally very skittish of human contact and mostly make themselves scarce when they are aware of human presence. I've spotted several bears in the Oregon woods, but always they have been running away as fast as they could.

Hikers from California, especially those who hike in the central Sierras, will have a much different point of view, since their bears act very differently than our local Oregon bears do.

Montanans will have yet another perspective, I suspect, since they have both blacks and grizzlies.