I hope I never run into bears in my rural area! I only had seen birds, coyotes, dogs, humans, snakes, butterflies, (w/rabbit)s, horses, bun(nie)s, cat (just one), squirrels, raccoon, etc.

I'm happy that I have run into bears here. It makes me feel like our area isn't as devoid of wildlife as many places are.
We have all those listed, plus skunks, possums, gophers, salamanders, elk, and yes, bears. Once I even saw a porcupine walking down the highway.
Twice I've had bears cross a river less than 50 ft from me while I was fishing just blocks from home, and before I built my fence they ravaged my apple trees every year with the elk and deer.
It's still a possibility that a bear is what paralyzed our puppy in our yard last June. We never found out what happened to her, and she's not talking, but she is up and walking.

Where do you with that wildlife?

Humboldt, California

I had a mother and two cubs move into our back yard for a week.
We had apple trees and they refused to leave until they had stripped all the trees.
The mother always kept the cubs at a distance, but the mother would come right up and stare into our dining room through the glass doors - of course this freaked the dog out.

One option was call wildlife services, and they treat bears like this in one way. Bears that move into housed areas are not afraid of people so they are put down. I decided to wait them out and not call.

In the end we managed to get them to leave by shooting at them with a pellet gun. Of course their hide is too thick for it to harm them. The mother did nothing when we shot at her, but when we decided to shoot at the cubs, (threatening them) the mother screamed at them and then bolted with them, and they didn't come back

Damage done?
No apples, not a real problem.
A scared dog who never wanted to sleep outside again.
Bear Feces - lots of it, cleaned up with shovels, lol.

God I love Humboldt and miss it dearly. Didn't live there, but visited a lot.

A great way to scare off bears and loose dogs while biking or hiking is to carry an air horn. Walmart sells them in the boating section. A can of compressed air with a loud, shrill blast. Boaters use them sometimes to signal bridge keepers to raise the drawbridge.