I grew up outside of the small village of Wallace, in the rural Upper Peninsula of Michigan around bears, but rarely saw one. Other than one or two brief glimpses, the only time that I saw a bear that wasn't on the hood of someone's car was once, when a small black bear was crossing our pasture at a run. I'm not sure what that was about, but the bear crossed about ten acres of pasture and then crossed the road near Bethel Church, and finally entered the tree line behind the church.
That was unusual, because it is rare to see a black bear in the wild, since they choose not to show themselves. On the few occasions in which someone is likely to come across a black bear in the wild, it usually is near a river or stream, possibly because the noise of the water masks the intruder's approach. Bears generally inhabit woods, seldom even going out into pastures or other open areas, particularly during daylight hours.
The exceptions are such as we see in the above photograph. Bears enjoy small clearings surrounded by forest because they can hear someone coming long before that person gets near enough to spot the bear. This particular bear doesn't seem to wander far from the forests of Petra, if at all. With all of the walking that I have done on our property this spring and summer, it is quite likely that the bear has hidden from me at one point or another. I'll be sixty years old in a couple of days so I make more than my share of noise when walking through the underbrush. The only times that I am concerned about the possibility of sneaking up on a bear unaware is when I am walking in the cedar swamp, since it is mostly absent of underbrush and the ground is grown with moss. Although I have thus far found no sign of bears in the cedar swamp, I make a habit of talking to myself sometimes while I am there, as a way of warning any bears that might be around. I love my bear, but I'm not sure that he loves me and I don't want to meet him up close and personal.