When I was on the Trail in 1990 no one was concerned about bears until the Smokies, and once we got out of there we forgot about them until the Shenandoahs. Today, I was reading the GA shelter threads and was suprised to find out about bear cables, sightings, and food being taken at virtually every shelter. Was I just ignorant about bears then, or has the bear population gotten that much bigger in the last 14 years?