I actually saw a bear crossing the road not far from Bear Mountain. Trust me, there are bears in that area, they are very people-shy and essentially nocturnal, so you're not going to see them often. Hell, we get one raiding our own garbage here on Mt. Doom a couple of times a year.

Actually, Bear Mountain is a 1200 vertical feet, 4 mile climb from the Hudson River (9W near Iona Island) to the top, so it's really a small mountain by most definitions. This mountain vs. hill debate is rather silly in my view. At the end of the day it depends who you're chasing up the hill it that makes it hard.