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West Milford is in Norwestern Passaic county NJ. Very heavily wooded and mountainous. Beautiful area.

Two bear stories for you:

1) In 1997, I moved from Nanuet NY to Greenwood Lake NY (1 mile from the NJ border, a few miles away from West Milford). The night I signed the lease for the "house" I rented (it was actually a log cabin on Greenwood Lake) I decided to take the back way to Nanuet through the Mountains.

At the very top of the mountain, just as I was starting to go downhill, I saw what appeared to be an extremely large dog running out of the woods towards the road, right in front of my car. I braked hard and swerved to miss the "dog", but it kept coming and ran head first into the left front quarter panel of my Altima. Right before impact, I noticed that it was NOT a dog but a very large bear. I kept on going and went a good mile down the road before I stopped to inspect for damages. Crushed up the front qp pretty good, but the car was drivable. A kid who was a bit behind me when I hit the bear stopped when I stopped, and jumped out to see if I was OK. He was freaking out, he got a much better look at the bear, and told me there was an even larger one chasing the first bear! We both skeedaddled outta there fast!

2) In March of 1999, my best friend and his wife bought a new house in Ringwood NJ (which borders West Milford) and were working late into the night fixing up the basement, and doing all those chores you do when you first buy a house. He went upstairs and into the garage to the refrigerator where he keeps the beer to take a break (it was about 11 pm). He opens up the door leading from the house into the garage, and lo and behold, there a huge Mama bear leaning against his wife's car eating frozen pizzas. The bear had gone into the refrigerator (they had left the garge door open) and "helped herself". He called me immediately after this happened, laughing his you-know-what off.

The problem with these bears is that they have no fear of humans and will go through your garbage and into your house without a second thought. In fact, the local cable channels always broadcast reminders to NOT call 911 about bear sightings. If people did, they would be overwhelmed with calls.

New Jersey has it all!