Hhhhmmmmm. Look , I've lived in the backcountry where it's a given that you better get used to the big bears being around , still have a shack down the inlet from Larsens Bay and trapped for a living in a number of locales in the north country along with having stood bear guard for the tourist chi-chi fishing crowd.
As has been covered , black bears are seldom a problem , however the big bears are a completely different kettle of fish. If one of them is close enough for you to hit it with pepper spray then the damn bear should have been dead 25 feet prior. Handguns , .44 mag minimum , and loaded with something like the 300 grain Hornady XTP or 300 grain Swift A Frame stacked over 22 grains or better or 2400 ,ww296 ,h110 or n110 , long guns....well a slug gun with the *right* slugs can get you by , personally I keep a Marlin Guide Gun if .45-70 , usually loaded with the Jae-Bak Young Craters , the 420 grain will do but the 550 grain is better.
And don't bother telling me about what folks have thumped Brownies with when *hunting* them , because there is a big , indeed a HUGE bloody damn difference between thumping one at distance and having to shoot one close up in a DLP scenario that is coming and already has it's adrenaline up.
And there are good reasons why most bush folks carry a rifle AND a sidearm , you have to put that rifle down sometime , kinda hard to do a bait and reset , split wood etc with a rifle in your hand.
And quite frankly this is another subject that some of the Television shows are gonna get someone *killed* on , these bears are nothing to take lightly , they can move dead silently when they choose to....and if you think you're going to outrun one you're in fantasyland , I have *seen* one run down a damned good Quarter Horse mare and kill her going past.
Equally frankly , many folks that have a problem with one of the big bears ran into said problem because they had a case of recto-cranial impaction , a guy over by Karluk got mauled a few years back because he was stupid enough not to give up a deer he was field dressing and had obviously seen one too many Daniel Boone movies , you don't fight a full grown sow with a skinning knife.
And don't even get me started on Timothy Treadwell , grizzly man my ass , he was seemingly too stupid to have assessed just how damned dangerous the late season bears can be , the tragedy is that he got that girl killed into the bargain.
R E S P E C T nature and you're likely to be ok , if you don't then .....shrug.