25 years fishing the Russian River on the Kenai Penisula and never had a bear encounter. Last fall had two in one day. Started the morning walking down to the RR and started upstream alongside a nice hole. Stepped off the river onto the trail and just as I did about a 3 year old black bear came around the corner about ten feet away. Made myself as big as I could and yelled loud enough to scare myself and the bear. Fortunately he left in a hurry and after I checked to see if I needed to back to my truck and change underwear, I kept going up the trail. 2d encounter not near as close, but kind of neat anyway. After awhile on the trail I stopped to fish and looked up stream. About 50 yards up saw a big blond griz along the bank. I again made myself look real big and talked real loud to the bear. Instead of leaving it jumped into the river and sat down. After about a minute 2 cubs of the year jumped in with her and she took them across the river and headed on up stream. I enjoyed the view and decided fishing was probably better down stream. Hope its another 25 years before the next one.