I moved from CAL to East TN in my teens. We lived in the middle of nowhere, like garbage got picked up every 3 months, had to drive a mile to get our mail, that sort of thing. Anyway, we had a pit we threw garbage in that was about 200 or so ft from our back door. I was the oldest and so it was my job to take the trash to the pit after dinner every night. I had forgot that night, and around 1am decided to run it down. I have a 12guage that we took when we went down that way as it was on the outskirts of a thick wood. This night, my genius ass forgot the gun, but grabbed the bag and headed down to the pit. It was a full moon and very easy to see. I get down there and toss the bag into the pit, and hit a black bear right in the face. Realizing what I did, I haul ass back towards the house, the bear roars and gives chase. I could hear it pounding behind me but was too scared to look back to see how far it was behind me. I get into the house, slam the door, heart pounding in my chest. I look out the windows and the bear is about 5ft from the glaring at me through the window, it's standing on its hind legs and I swear it was 12ft tall! (I know it wasn't, but this is the memory of someone who was in total terror. Also, this is 25 years ago.) It paced back and forth a few times, I went and grabbed the gun, just in case it decided to try to break in. When I got back to the door it was gone. I never forgot to take out the trash, or to grab the gun again though, I can tell you that much.