Went for a overnight backpacking trip to Panthertown Valley. Trip started out great, we had 16 scouts most being first time backpacking. It was a great day for hiking in a beautiful area and we had a good trip hiking in. We got to camp which was a hammockers Nirvana, a large white pine grove with no low branches and perfect spacing. All went great in the afternoon, everyone got setup with no problems and fixed are dinners ate. We all got cleaned up, bear bags were all hung. Built a campfire and were telling stories, one of the boys says is that a bear. Not twenty feet from us is bear tugging on a pack tied on a tree. The boys and adults all start the normal yelling and making noise to scare away the bear, but this bear just calmly walks over to where the boys had there food hung and was able to snatch one down. By this time we all had are lights on shining on the bear just sitting on the trail eating his prize. While a group of us are standing on the trail yelling and trying to getting this bear to move on he finishes his meal and walks right at us to get more bounty.
It was decided this bear had no fear of humans and for safety of all we were packing up. We kept lights and eyes on the bear while the boys and adults packed. The group packed up and night hiked the three miles to the parking area in less than two hours. We drove home with only the loss of two food bags. In twenty years of backpacking this is only time I have seen a bear this brazen.