i have also had a couple of bear encounters in my travels. on one hiking adventure in the mountains, we happily tripped around a bend in the trail, and sitting right in the middle of the trail, not 50 feet away was this beautiful black bear. "what's the protocol here?" i ask. to which my much wiser son replied: " very quietly and very slowly back up".
his mother didn't get that report, either...
We were hiking in Yosemite once, when the bushes to the right of us rustled and out popped a bear, not 5 feet away! Luckily, he was was surprised as us, and skedaddled back the way he came.
Bears? Good heavens I will die, I will… @chefsdreams your protocol reminded me of something funny now. Years ago we went on school trips out into the "veld". My brother told me they were warned against snakes and the teacher was asked what to do if they come across one. He replied and told them to take a step either to the left, or the right, then a step or two backwards, before turning around and making a run for it. One of the kids asked why the step to the side first and he responded: "If you take a step back, you're going to step in your own crap!"