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There have been a few places where bears are being "bothersome". In the BWCA, up on Knife Lake, near Thurder Point, Bonnie Lake and Kekekabic, a few new Ensign. About 5 days ago had a group come back with 2 tents that were ripped up. Said it was a sow & 2 cubs, figured it may have been the cubs who tore up the tent. New today was someone who came back from their trip & said they were on Lake Two, a campsite on the northeast side (not an island) & had a pesky bear in their site & their tent. They just want your food, so... Taking a day trip? Take your food pack with you. Leave your tent doors open, not perfect but it can help the tent not get torn up (as bad).. Keep a clean site, no food in your tent or other smelly things a bear might want to sniff out.
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Bears can be very bothersome. It's impossible to keep the smell of food out of a tent. If you cook any type of food the smells are on your clothing and if you enter your tent that smell goes in with you. Our group had an encounter in 1997 with a bear and I have told the story many times to countless people with everyone laughing as to what happened. Having bears is no laughing matter but it's hard to keep the smells from entering your tent. Bears have a VERY keen sense of smell. I have been told that bears can smell bacon several miles away. One can never be too careful when it comes to handling food and their smells in camp.
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Thanks for the update, VoyageurNorth. I've never had a problem with bears, but plenty with squirrels and mice. Same principles apply - keep food/toothpaste/deordant/etc. out of the tent and away from camp if you can. I've taken scouts, and the dialogue is sometimes humorous - "Where did that beef jerky come from?" "It was in my pack." "Where was your pack?" "In my tent." "I told you not to have any food in your tent." "It's OK since I didn't eat it in my tent." "Umm... no. When I said no food, I meant absolutely no food, whether you were eating it or not." Luckily we haven't had any encounters with bears and have even managed to avoid the squirrels, chipmunks, and mice. (As far as I know - they don't always tell me everything that has happened...)
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 1 user thanked Ben Strege for this useful post.
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It is not impossible to keep food smells out of a tent. If you cook things that leave odors, you might watch the direction of the wind, be careful about your cooking methods, wash thoroughly after doing dishes, and even change clothes. You can also change the way you cook.
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This thread is bear-ly alive so I think I'll spruce it up a bit. Here are a couple of stories from my Sept. 2010 trip. ***** Steve and I put in at Snowbank Lake and get to the middle of Disappointment Lake, just north of the big island. Lynn at VNO (aka "Voyageur North" who started this discussion) had told us about bear activity from Parent Lake all the way up to Ensign. We briefly consider moving but realize we won't be out of the (known) active area until Jordan Lake. So we decide to stay with a known entity rather than start all over somewhere else. We're getting ready for a delicious first-night dinner of pita bread pizzas. While the toppings are rehydrating, I head down the shore to find a spot to stash the food pack, leaving Steve in camp. A few minutes later I hear Steve vocalizing with some intensity, though not very loud. I listen a moment and turn around to see what's up. As I approach the campsite I see Steve standing where he is in the picture below, and a small black bear standing where the daypack is. 
The bear is about two feet tall and four feet long, with a black snout. It looks like a burly Newfoundland and I want to just sit and watch it. OK, to tell the truth I want to pet it. But my training kicks in and I raise my arms and yell at it to make it go away. It backs up a few steps and stops, looking our way with its head cocked the way a dog does when spoken to. I have a sense that it's thinking, "Hey, you talkin' to me?" I move toward it, again waving and yelling, and it turns and lopes away toward the woods, but stops at the edge of the campsite. It looks back at me over its right shoulder as if to say, "Are you serious? Do we really have to do this?" I call to Steve to get the camera and a second or two later raise the ante by going into crazy-man mode. I charge the bear, waving wildly and yelling at it in a higher-pitched voice. The poor thing turns and bolts into the woods and we never see sign of it again. Note the location of the camera in the picture above. It stayed there safe and sound. Later in the evening we hear from the two young men who are camped on the island site just south of us. The previous day a sow and two cubs had gotten into their food pack (which was on the ground) and their next day's lunch (which was in their tent). I bite my tongue to keep from complimenting them on how to set the table for bears. ***** Gavia aka Koda
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