Spent this past week up in 16, 16a, and 12. Snowline is about 5k feet. Lots of green grass. Snow still in shade patches as low as 3800ft.
Major trailheads were packed with hunters. The one we hit first, there were at least 18 rigs that came and went from the 12th-19th. Talked to guys who said there were 32 rigs at the trailhead April 20th last year. Talked to an old timer setting up a bait who has been hunting in there since 1979... said until the last couple years, it was rare to see another living soul at that particular trailhead... but it looks good on ONX and GOHUNT when E-Scouting, and talked to several hunters who said they found it because a popular youtube channel showed a bunch of bears getting killed in there over the last few years (and apparently it was an identifiable location with some landmarks shown in the video). We wasted 3 of our days in there, and after running into the 5th group of hunters leaving early because they had glassed for 3-5 days without seeing a thing... we decided it had just too much pressure and went elsewhere.
Funny thing though, with just 2 days left, we picked a couple random spots on our way home, trails without trucks at them or a bunch of people tracks from the previous week... and we turned up a couple bears. The first we weren't able to relocate the next morning, but the second we relocated and got to within 400 yards after a 2300ft climb (not easy for a 12 and 14 year old). But we ran out of time after it went into some timber, as we had an 8 hour drive ahead of us and had to be home that next day for the sitter and our younger kids. But before we left the spot, to prove he had the stuff... my 14 year old took a 405 yard shot at a white dot on a rock across the canyon from us... put his bullet less than an inch from that spot with one shot... so it would have been a dead bear if it had ever stopped moving or had come out for a clean shot in the open.
We did glass a sow and cub earlier in the week as well. Bears we saw were at 3000, 4000, and 4300 feet.
My advice for anyone going to the Lochsa or Selway or NF Clearwater country is... pick a trailhead that doesn't have trucks at it... there are literally hundreds of trailheads and accessable ridges between those three rivers... all have bears up them... but all the super hunter types will be coming in from TX, NJ, MA, etc and will all be focused on the end of the road trailheads... and guess what... the bears will either be shot before you get there or nocturnal due to pressure...