Western NC Black Bear

[mkfitz]

Ive grown up hunting white tale in the flats but now live in the mountains and want to try my hand at black bear hunting, inspired by the ONYA a friend and I are planning a 3 day backpacking hunting trip in western nc. Kind of our budget version of a big out west hunt as there is no shortage of public lands here. Neither of us has ever hunted black bear, and I am the only one that has explored any of the local area he is from out of town. Any suggestions as where to narrow down our area to hunt and things to look for would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for any help. On a side note its very exciting to see NC and Tennessee beginning to allow elk hunting in these states, granted its on very limited tracks of land and number of tags released can be counted on two hands.