I hunted the Thorofare drainage last week. I didn't see a single bear the first day, also no elk were killed the first day. The second day elk started going down, saw 3 grizzlies the second day. 7 more on the third day after I killed my elk. I had a 454 Casull Ruger Super Redhawk with 325 grain bullets as backup and felt comfortable. The bears didn't seem too worried about people as long as you weren't near elk meat/carcass. We rode horses in to and out of the hunting area in the dark. When the guide was quartering my elk I was on bear watch. I didn't look to see what he was doing, if we talked, I was still constantly scanning for movement. He was facing the horses while cutting so I concentrated my focus on the other 270* perimeter. The elk died in a small piece of timber, we had a discussion of how things needed to go, and we stuck to the plan. Another thought would be to keep your horses close. I'm no expert but at one point we had mules with elk meat on them tied behind us. A sow and cub came in, but she didn't seem to know what to do about the meat being on the mule. Plus they are also an advanced form of detection. They'll let you know when somethings around.