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They know your mind and they know your heart. "Worthiness" is why 99.99% of persons attempting an encounter will fail. ShadowBorn, it never occurred to me that 'ShadowBorn' could be an Indian name. I am 100% anglo, but if I had an indian name it would be " Slower traffic keep right".

@JanineRSP OK- I'll bite. I encountered two BF back in 1990 at night near Telluride CO on what is known as the Dallas Divide. I had each one of them in my brights of my truck at very close range- about 8 to 10 feet. I had a camera and might have been able to take a photo, but the idea of putting my camera outside the truck so as to avoid windshield glare when the flash went off was a bit daunting. They were really big; both were seated and I got a good idea of how larger they were because to get past them I had to drive around them- they were literally seated in my lane on the hiway.

How big is that bear/deer/big hairy mammal/stump in your trail cam pics? It is not difficult to get an approximation. I use metric Pocket Rods to scale animal images. I use metric due to the resolution of trail cameras. It is easy to see centimeters. After I place a trail cam and before I switch out the storage media/batteries, I wander around in front of the camera, stopping in many places. Sturdy camera mounts are important for image alignment. I have home made accessories for my Pocket Rods for distance from camera.. The Pocket Rod is 2 meters in length. The 1 meter mark is in red ink. The horizontal Pocket Rod has the 1 meter mark in front of my whistle & signal mirror. A little image processing and the bear is scaled. In setting this image up, I thought about being the invisible researcher and just adding my gloved hands and Pocket Rods. Here we have Jane Doe. No deers were poked during this exercise. Accessories for measuring. The image below is from my 1st set of distance cards. They were made from 3 X 5 cards. My new sets are plastic. The distance cards are slipped over the 'blade'. The image shows the Pocket Rod at 1/2 meter away from the camera ( the comma is not in view ). A tape measure is stretched out on the ground and I walk out to the distance indicated on the cards.

Over the past 15 years the Alaska Deot of Fish and Game, with the assistance of the Air Force and Army who own all of the land immediately north of the city of Anchorage and well up into the Chugach Mountains to the east, have been studying the bears that inhabit the city, bases, and surrounding area. After fitting a few dozen bears, including a thousand pound monster, one of their biggest surprises was that the bears descend into the congested parts of the city, even the downtown area, and essentially live in the greenbelts when the salmon arrive. And they do so, for the most part, without even being seen by the people. How do they do it? They fish the creeks at night, then go into the bushes and sleep all day long while people walk, ride bikes, skate, and travel the bike trails a few yards away. Then when the salmon runs subside, the bears head back up into the mountains to feast on the berries before winter. There are an estimated 300+ black bears and 60+ brown/grizzly bears within the municipality borders at any one time. The original Urban Bear study began in 2005. There have been at least three more since. Here's a link to one of the more recent studies of 9 bears. http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm%3Fadfg%3Dlivingwithbears.anchorageurbanbearsstorymap

Another horrible suit, I thought it was easy to make a Patty suit, shoot, they did it back in '67.

More action at my Gift Area 2, another PB jar taken, only out there a few days, and some Apples. As far as the Apples, I stuck them on the Deer Antlers as shown, delicately balanced in the tree, and the reason being most any other animal would knock the skull on to the ground puling them off the Antlers. A few before & after shots, plus some new prints in the area. I still can't figure out why my pics are getting turned sideways, they are normal in my computer.....easy on your necks:)

Janine What exactly are you looking for ? Are looking for an encounter ?or just grasping for answers like the rest of us?All I can say is that cameras are not going to give you the answers that you are looking for. Every encounter that I have had was done with out a camera and audio. I had even gotten closer when I was told by elders that I was to burn photo's I had of them in the forest so that they could see I was for real to them. Now I am being open on a public forum about this and I am sure I have said this before. I am not sure how other hunters must have thought about me and my pittbull out in the middle of the woods doing these strange things. But I gained more knowledge then I thought I would ever dream off. Before I started it was all theory and needed to be tested but I was scared of the out come.But I had to grab my guts and just do it and wait for the out come. I kept hearing people about their encounters so I had to prove it to myself. So I started my search in 2001 on a report on the BFRO report # 2953 Washtenaw county, Mi Class A. It was this report that started it all for me. This report was the biggining for me.But it was not where I had my encounters or my sightings. Those events took place later after I had met other researchers in my state of Michigan. Those encounters are the ones that have brought to the Bff and have kept me loyal to this forum. What I can say is that this forum was not like it was back then like it is now. To post your encounter on this forum back then was like going through a gauntlet. There was no safe zone on this forum and you were on your own. You either had an encounter or you did not and no in between. If you are going to make a show then also show how these creatures effect people and how they are effected by others who have never seen these creatures.