reynolds357,
Take a fishing trip in the Eastern Sierra up around Mammoth Lakes or Bridgeport. You ought to see about one a day, maybe far more than that. I'm not sure what a nonresident bear tag costs. But if I were going to hunt them, that's where I'd go, or maybe the Angeles National Forest. Black bears roam the streets of villages in the Angeles at night. And a game warden told me that black bears in the Angeles are among the fattest in the state because they don't hibernate much because of warm weather and the ski resort dumpsters are fast food restaurants for them.
A lady I know who lives in a village in the Angeles saw one about ten years ago. Her description of it would place it firmly in the huge category. And they're mostly liberals up there that don't hunt them. My game warden friend wanted me to buy a tag a kill one. I told him definitively, "No way." I've hunted and fished the High Sierra and I've hunted throughout the Rockies. I've never hunted mountains as rugged as the San Gabriels. Besides that, the San Andreas fault runs through the San Gabriels.
http://www.americansouthwest.net/cal...iel_mountains/
This guy lived in the Angeles:
http://articles.latimes.com/2001/may/16/local/me-64078