I'm not sure if I told this story here or not but since bears were brought up I'll share again. I was 18 and with 2 friends walking on a trail called "Falls Trail". It was on "Red Rock" mountain (big hill) in north eastern Pa. It went down one side of the (hill) and back up the other with nearly 30 sets of water falls along the way ranging from a couple of feet to more than 90 feet. Very cool walking trail. Along the way we were surprised by a deer drinking out of the stream that we spooked and it darted right past us. Guys being guys (you know, "macho") we started talking about what we would do if we saw a bear. "I would hit it with�a stick", "Yeah. well I would throw rocks at it to fuck with it", "shit, I would chase his ass". Comments like that but I don't think we really expected to see one. At the top of the trail we started hearing a high pitched kind of squeal and then something like a loud hiss. Then we heard something that sounded like something scratching a tree and more squeals. We get to the very end where you step out of the brush and into a field that led to the center where we were going. Anyway in a line of three the first guy opens up a brushy area to walk out ont the open field and he stopped in his tracks. he started stuttering "there there's a bear" and the other two of us looking over each side of�his shoulder saw the bear. No sticks, no rocks and no chasing, just a flat out sprint by all three of us until we got to the center about a hundred yards away. So headbanger, even if just a guess can you explain the noises. The bear we saw was a cub. I'm guessing we were about to be mauled.(lol)