Living where I do in northern Minnesota we see a lot of bears. We live in town but on a dead end road bordering the woods.
This happened to me about a month ago.
I get up at 3am. Yes I know weird but we own our own business and it's required.
So my routine is I start the coffee and let the dog out the front door to do her duties. She is usually gone 20 minutes to a half hour and then will scratch at the door to be let back in.
In the meantime I sit on the couch enjoying my morning coffee and surfing the internet.
So just like clock work I heard, or thought I heard the dog at the door.
I got up and walked out to the entry way and opened the inside door. I had my hand on the storm door latch to open it when I seen a big black nose with flaring nostrils right at the screen. The nose was attached to about a 250 pound black bear! We were literally less than a foot apart with just the storm door screen between us.
My reaction was to kick the door and let out a holler! He took off running like all heck. We scared the crap out of each other!!
I then stepped outside and called for my dog. She came from behind the garage somewhere and never knew the better from what I could tell that a bear was at the front door.
They for the most part are harmless but do need to be respected.