Believe it or don't, I have a bit of history with the Griz. As a little girl in the early 60's, my brothers & I were hiking in the Northern Rockies. It was late fall and a rather warm weekend for Colorado.   We came upon a cave & my little brother & I decided to explore. We had always thought that our father was the loudest snorer on the face of the earth. We giggling that we were wrong. When my older brother found us, he had already gone for our father who came with a flashlight. That was when we realized that the big furry thing was not snoring. We ran. Fortunately the Griz was sleepy enough to be slow.
    Then one summer when I was a teen, I went back to the Rockies to summer camp. I decided to go with the group horseback riding one day, so off we went on the trail. In the late morning we saw something really big & dark in the distance. The teenage kid leading us on the trail ride was rather freaked out. Almost as much as our horses. We made it back ok. The camp director had not bothered to let anyone know that there had been sightings of a large Griz since early that spring.
    Several years back when I was up driving back to the midwest one night, I heard a funny noise sounding like a belt broke & stopped & looked under the hood to check it out. A nice state trooper came along & decided to see what I was doing. When he pulled up behind me, he ran straight into a very tall furry thing. When his backup came, he & they put the Griz across the hood of the late 70's really big troopermobile & it hung over onto both fenders on either side. The other troopers couldn't believe it--or that I was not even touched by the bear. The leader of the local Arapahoe band was called, to help the spirit of the bear cross over, and we had quite an night.
    I haven't had any more Griz times, but have walked in the tracks of a Black bear in northern Wisconsin. I think I'm likely safe from Bears here in Kansas.