Oooh, sounds like you had quite the bit of adventure there. The events at the end really raise my eyebrows. You're right, if they were forest service, why didn't they lecture you on the use of your gun? They may have been merely Service volunteers who were checking around to make sure the trails/park is ship-shape (we have people like that out here), and were a bit intimidated by your gun demonstration and not trained to lecture you. But of course, with my natural suspicions, they could've also been thugs (on horseback?) who were going to rob you, faked the "Forest Service" titles and aborted when they realized you had a gun.

My questions are, becuase I have no experience in the matter, what made your family think there were bears involved?