Obviously we don't have all the facts but I thought it was interesting that there was no mention of doing anything to appear large and threatening when the bear was approaching. No yelling, arm waving, hitting, kicking, eye gouging, rock throwing, etc.

His behaviour (walking away, dropping items, turning his back on the bear) sounds like the behaviour of a prey animal.

Obviously he could have left facts out (or facts could have been edited out) of that very brief account.

Glad to hear that things turned out relatively well for him.
_________________________
"There is not a man of us who does not at times need a helping hand to be stretched out to him, and then shame upon him who will not stretch out the helping hand to his brother." -Theodore Roosevelt