Were the bears chowing down on the berries in the stream valley bottoms? A few years ago when I was up that way, the berries were ripe. Every few feet, you could see where a heavy animal had crushed all the grass and berries as it moved through. And there was berry-laced scat everywhere. I was so certain that I'd see a bruin pop his head over the bank somewhere, and that he'd go "woof", and I'd mess myself, but we saw absolutely no animals.
Too many years have gone by for this to be the same snake, but I have a similar looking one I encountered in 2007.