We were hiking from TM to Reds Meadow the first week of August 09 (when that freak snowstorm hit). In TM, we were in the backpacker campground - a ranger with a dish was tracking a problem bear, followed by a ranger with a paintball gun - we heard them shooting at the bear most of the day. The deer don't even flinch as they graze along the river when they're firing the gun....

In Lyell the following night, a bear woke us up by knocking over a pot walking through camp and we had to yell and wave - he was licking one of the Bear Vaults.

The following night we went off the JMT about a mile to Laura Lake and had no bears. We hid the canisters in foliage under rocks. There were folks across the lake who said they had bear issues, but they had the bearproof panniers and didn't seem to be hiding them.

The night after we were in the Shadow Creek drainage on a bench above the trail. We had a bear come through camp three times - drove him off each time. We buried the canisters in granite flakes (about 10 lbs per flake) and heard him moving the rocks each time.

Last May there was a bear in the grassy area before Wapama Falls just wandering around, grazing and rooting around in the grass, but we didn't see or hear any at Rancheria - rangers insist there are active bears in that area and I believe them, but some ignoramus hung a sack of stuff very badly and it wasn't touched.

Other than that, I've seen no bears - went out toward Dinkey Lakes two or three times, out north of Courtright, in and around Yosemite and out to Ostrander Lake (saw a TON of scat on the trail tho), up to Alta Peak and back - heck, on the Alta Peak hike, one guy went back with someone who had altitude sickness symptoms and saw THREE bears on the trail, and I saw none!

Two years ago I stayed at Alta Meadow solo - was sound asleep until I heard something ripping apart a log - had to be a bear. But it didn't touch the bear canister.

So, yeah, they are out there and very active, just not always where you are. TM campgrounds appear to be the place to go, if you want pictures of bears with radio collars...