Hunter hears footsteps late at night in Goldstream Valley, just north of Fairbanks witnessed in Fairbanks County, Alaska

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This happened in late August of 1997 in a side valley of Goldstream Valley, a relatively populated area just north of Fairbanks. Although it's quite close to the Fairbanks area and there are many houses and roads in the main part of Goldstream, the side valleys are still as wild as they were a thousand years ago. I was hunting ruffed grouse in one if these side valleys (I prefer not to say which one). I was on a south-facing aspen covered hillside, and had hunted all afternoon and evening, intending to spend the night out on the hill and hunt my way back in the morning. As I was making camp, a black bear almost walked right into me. I heard him coming from a ways off, and scared him away before he got closer. later on, it will become apparent why I mention this. So I was sleeping out in the open, no tent, under a spruce tree. Sometime in the middle of the night, I was awakened by something prowling around my camp, maybe thirty feet or so away from me, walking in a circle. I men...