I was up in Alaska doing some work - carried bear spray and a shotgun. I was working my way up a small creek through some thick brush and smelled what to me smelled like a barn full of old, musty hay. I thought that was odd and didn’t seem right - and figured I had collected enough data and headed back.
Got back to where the bear watcher (with a rifle) was watching the other guys and told him.
“That was a bear. They killed an elk up the creek aways. The elk’s stomach smells like that with the grass they eat. But the elk is another thousand feet up the creek, so I doubt you smelled him. The bears will get pretty covered in it though when eating.”
After you find out how close then you sweat a little and smell it in your mind. Get the smell again you’ll think. It the big leagues up there and else where. Best gun fight, man or beast is the one you never have. IMO