My son had been warned and lectured ad nauseum about bears by his Scoutmaster and by his parents before his first overnight campout with the Scouts in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. The first night out, they were staying overnight at an established campground which provided a safe campfire area and little else. The boys were staying in tube tents. I think it was 2 boys per tent (feet to feet) with the Scoutmaster and his assistent in a separate pup tent. In the middle of the night, my son suddenly woke everybody by calling out “Bear, bear!”
The adults jumped up ready to fight, or flee, and found that my son had awakened from a bad drream and mistook a PICNIC TABLE for a hulking bear in the moonlight. They all had a good laugh at my very embarrassed kid.
That son (in fact both sons) have grown up to be quite the outdoorsmen — hunting, fishing, etc. thanks to their scouting experiences — and are passing those skills on to their sons. I don’t think either of them would seek out a bear on purpose.
That is a great story.
It also emphasizes this tragedy — the instructors in this wilderness excursion didn’t have the skills a Scoutmaster does, so why are they selling themselves as experts?
As you say, no one goes TO a bear — or even (especially) the cute cubs.