I believe members of the guinea fowl forum have had good luck with hot wire for bears, Not around the run, the hot wire is used to "fence" in their yards, originally "baited" using bacon so they touch it with their most vulnerable parts. You will have to fix it a couple of times, but it works.
Your idea of the 48" hardware cloth and after that other fencing would do it, or you could even use 36" hardware cloth. Either way I would run a hotwire . I don't put a hotwire at ground level because I also free range, but a hotwire somewhere before the hardware cloth ends should stop any...