re: Since bears have been in the news lately. Have you ever seen one

Once. Me and my kids were hiking Mount Mitchell, in North Carolina, a few years back. About halfway up the trail, I started hearing really loud crunches of leaves and I told everyone to "stop", as it was much larger sounding than a deer.
Poor thing saw us and started running back down the mountain. I told the kids "just stay here for a minute". Once the black bear realized we weren't there to mess with him, he walked back up the mountain, across the trail, and on his way. We took about a 10 minute break just to make sure he was further up the mountain than us, and went on our way. Very awesome experience.