So, what does a black bear smell like?

I agree that the urine smell could very well be unrelated. I actually noticed two separate places where metal piping, the kind you might see inside a storm drain, crossed the path. Possibly somehow the smell was related to that? I also noticed a good bit of water was on the trail at places as a result of rainfall lately. It was a very damp trail at times. With all of the tree cover, the smell could be from the water. But I was stopped in my tracks at how strong it was just prior to our encounter.
 
Where did you access the trail to Rabun Bald? We drove into North Carolina from the road going from Dillard, GA to Highlands, NC and took a side road near a real estate office. I will never do that hike again when the leaves are still on the trees. It is a bad place to get hurt and need rescuing.

Do you live in Rabun county?
 
As far as the dead ones, I have handled many and even mounted one of them for my brother-in-law{in a taxidermy sense.}

I am glad that you clarified that statement. At first I thought that I heard banjos playing. :D
 

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About 50 years ago while deer hunting I came across a black bear in Northern California and let me tell he stunk. He kind of smelled like an elk hunter that had not bathed in a couple of weeks only worse. I have been pretty close to other bears and they did not stink like that one did. I guess it was a case of bad bear hygiene.
 
Twelve years ago... in the low-mountains on the San Juan's... I rode up 'bout 800 yards from a bear feedin' on a carcus. Dam horse went crazy... so much so... the bear looked up. But he didn't stop his feedin'. Downwind... I could smell it from my perch.

Got back to camp... the Michigan boys says they can smell 'em from way, way far off... iff'n they been baited with old beavers.
 
What does a black bear smell like?

If it was the one that tore down the grocery cache in camp....

Sardines, that what it smelled like.......A case of sardines


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I've been close to many Black Bears and the only time I ever noticed a bad odor from them is when they come out of the water, such as this one who just went for a swim. Many of the waterholes they bath in are stagnant and smell similar to sewer water. More often than not, Black Bears will run off before you get a chance to see or hear them... there is always that exception though.
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I can tell you what one Black Bear smelled like, Limburger cheese, sardines, and rancid grease.

She had been hanging out on my porch, and feasting at the dumpster at a State Park in the Ouachita Mountains of western Arkansas just making a bit of a nuisance of herself. Called the Game & Fish guys and they brought a trap up. Watched her decided between that juicy dumpster and the trap baited with a variety of morsels for several nights, she always chose the dumpster until I put the Limburger cheese in the trap. Bingo!

Helped the G&F guys work her up, and as we weighed , measured ,and tagged her the smell would gag a maggot. Glad I had a jar of Vicks for DBs in the truck.
 
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I have lived in that area-in the mountains- I have been up that trail, but decades ago, and there have always been stories about the "Goat Man" etc., around the Georgia Mountains (NE). The problem I have-and maybe I'm just ignorant-is having the same proximity, same experience, 3 years apart. Is that typical bear/hog behavior? Do they stay in one place that long? Few things smell as bad as a really nasty human being. I would suggest that the gentleman who is a fireman in that area talk to some local LEO's or forestry folks to see if there is an existing yarn about someone/thing on Rabun Bald. Given that these encounters were 3 years apart, the area needs to be swept, at the very least. Folks are going up and down that trail with their Women Folks, as I did, and Y'all, all of the time. Just my 2 cents.
 
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