You need new friends...
Loggers, log truck drivers, guys with hounds, (although they can't hunt with them here now, they usually know where good populations of bear are). Timber company offices. Talk to the guy running field operations. They usually have a couple hound hunters (permitted), that take out bears that are damaging trees. Ask permission to hunt. If they give you permission, they'll probably put you where there are bear. Contact the WDFW game office for the area you want to hunt. They're actually quite helpful. Or... find a Federal Forest Service agent. (not a Park Warden) Also the guys that maintain the Forest Service roads.
There are several ways to hunt Bear here. Note that the list above is of people that spend a lot of time in the woods. We city dwelling working stiffs can't. So, all of your weekends dawn to dusk will be used for scouting Bear. In clear cuts, look for ripped up stumps with bugs in them. You're looking for clear cuts that are at least four/five years old and not replanted yet, or just recently replanted. Clear cuts on the spur roads. Not the main line. Bears don't like people. (Park Bears are quite a bit more tolerant of us)
The best way to find these cuts are from dual purpose motorcyle. (you need a street legal bike for almost all U.S. Forest Service roads. Most timber companies won't let you take an ATV in.
An old rule, Where there are Grouse, there are Bear. Where there are Grouse, there are Deer.
Other than on bike, (I am not a road hunter, I just use the bike to find spots) I prefer to hunt Bear at elevation. Blueberry fields above or right at the treeline. South facing slopes of berries will be ripe in mid July if we're lucky this year. Once the berries are gone in mid/late August, the Bears will turn to more grasses of mountain meadows. Seems like the best window for bruins on the west side is just before Deer season. Look for groves of Salmonberry and Blackberry. Find yourself an open Forest Service trail (wa trails association) (Green Trails Maps) -Parking permit required. Many of these trails get into the back country to the high meadows.
I suspect that you're wanting a Bear rug? Go to your taxidermist and have him show you exactly how to cut when you're skinning the critter. He'll probably have a Bear hide available -recently from the tannery to demonstrate with.
Guaging the size of Bears can be difficult at distance. Belly rubbing the ground/logs is a good sign. Don't be under gunned.
Some of the biggest Bears have been taken in the Capitol peak area south of Olympia. Kelso/Longview hills. Skamania. Foothills above Black Diamond. Elbe. Eatonville. But I have also seen 400+ pound bears in higher elevations. Almost anywhere on the parimeter of the Olympic National Park. The hills above Issaqua have Bear. Well... All of the west side of the Cascades has Bear. There's more here and there. Less in one spot, but there are Bear in the hills. You've just got to spend time in the woods.
-Steve
. I'm in my mid twenties and hunting black bear in western washington for the first time this year. I grew up in a family which didn't carry down the hunting tradition so I'm learning it the old fashioned way, trial and error. I don't really have any advice to add (none that'd help anyway) just wanted to say good luck.