Are there any reports of nuisance bears in the Knife Lake/Kekekabic Lake areas?

We were on Knife a week ago and hadn't heard anything. We spent a night on Birch and the site was trashed enough with trash and food that I'm surprised we didn't find a bear. Thanks to whoever did that...

I haven't heard of any around Kekekabic, but Knife has been known to have some around the Bonnie portage, and around the Eddy portage area in SAK, but that's over the years. For what it's worth, I stayed at a site near the Bonnie portage and saw or heard no signs of a bear, and stayed on the big island in SAK later that year and saw nor heard any signs of a bear. Knife and Kek are excellent lakes; I wouldn't worry about bears. Keep a clean campsite, gather garbage and snacks from people at the end of the day to put in your food pack/barrel so no one has food items in their tent or around camp, and do your dishes away from camp. You should be just fine.

I would be concerned and aware. Stop in at an outfitter nearby, ask questions, and listen to advice. We forgot to listen until afterwards... "I think this is the site the outfitter told us about!" This was in 2010, but a bear was habituated to several Knife Lake sites and would make regular rounds. Don't think that an island is protected from bears.

Anyway, be prepared and be aware. Have a great time.

Here is a write-up from our experience.

We just got back from BWCA Ely and it rained most of the trip and the wind blew white caps most of the time (mainly when we were traveling - in our face). We met a nice local that we shared our food with. Mr. Black Bear. Phil and I took matters into our own hands and Mitch got sucked into the plan (you know, the two boys - three boys no brains theory). Anyway, we returned from fishing and found two of our packs gone. Bear. Phil wanted his packs back and I worked out a plan to get them. We made a sweep in the direction we thought he went, yelling, banging trees with canoe paddles, and had our pockets filled with throwing stones. We found our packs, but the food was gone. Fair enough, but it was time to depart the campsite before dark. Too late, the bear circled around us and came back into camp (10 to 20 yards away). Again, we kicked his butt out of our camping area. If you are keeping score, Bear 1(took our packs) and Voyagers 2 (retrieved our packs and chased him out of camp). We decided to leave camp immediately and proceeded to load the canoes. We went back to the fire pit to make sure the trash was burned and the area picked up, and then Phil saw the Bear take one our food buckets right out of the canoe. Bad Bear. Mitch and I took off down the beach chasing him and I yelled to Phil to cut him off in the thick brush. The Bear couldn't carry the bucket thru the thick brush without having it pulled from his mouth. Bingo, we had him cornered on the Point. I had the beach covered and Phil and Mitch had the woods. The Bear was cornered and he knew it. Phil and Mitch got him with a few well placed stones and he dropped the bucket. Now don't confuse this stoning with the Iranian stonings, this was a retrieval operation, not a social lesson. Anyway, Phil grabbed the bucket and we headed for the canoe. As we were getting into the canoes, the Bear was sitting on the beach watching us leave (again 20 yards away). We were very efficient in our departure. Five miles further down the lake we setup a new camp and finished the remaining cognac that was opened during our "get the packs back" strategy session........ Final score: Bear 2, Voyagers 3. Attached are some pictures from the event.

Here is a picture of a food bucket following our bear encounter.

A bear that has been spotted around the Ely area with a garbage can lid has been able to evade live traps set by the Minnesota DNR.
The problem however, may lie with the bear being fed either on purpose or inadvertently through bird feeders.

link to ely echo article

Bobber, good story telling!