About 10 years ago we were eating dinner at the highly used campsite below Gregory Bald on what was the old AT before it was rerouted. While eating, my daughter pointed out a large male bear which had entered our camp and was near the tent where she had left the food bag, only about 50' away. I "calmly" walked past the bear, within about 10' I would guess, picked up the food bag and carried it back to where we were sitting.
That bear looked almost comical as he watched me walk away with his targeted dinner. After a couple of minutes, he lost interest and wandered off to roll some logs and look for grubs. We watched him for about an hour before he left the area.
I'm not saying there aren't dangerous bears, nor am I saying my actions that day were well thought out, but in my experience, the hysteria over black bear encounters is way overblown. We've had close encounters many times and only once was I ever nervous about it. That bear actually moved toward my son and me in a manner I viewed as possibly predatory while we stood under Shuckstack tower. But when we left and hiked back down to the AT, he didn't follow, so even that was a non-event in reality.