Just thought I would post this thread from the Trip Planning forum here to raise awareness of a bear problem on Alpine Lake.

Alpine Lake Bear

Still have never seen a bear up there. Always have my heeler with me who always keeps a perimeter check. I figure the bears, if any have ever been close, smell her and figure it's not worth the effort.

Is their regular food not plentiful right now? Seems we've had enough rain and sun for there to be plenty of plants. Lazy bears!!

Bear on northern side of Agnes stole a food pack about 1-2 weeks ago. Group found the pack about 200 yards in the woods. I don't think they lost food (or not much) because nothing was said about that. Maybe the bear gave up after being chased?

I swear I am hearing more bear stories than any previous year. Wonder if the population has spiked a little. Hell I almost hit my 3rd bear today on I35.

I went to Basswood in early June, camped west of Washington island. We had bear issues morning noon and night. It was a very large mom and a second or third year cub. They keep raiding the campsite next to us which had 9 guys in it. They did everything possible and they keep coming, yelling screaming throwing rocks even warning shots would not stop them. They just kept coming. Finally after leaving talked to the woman at prairie portage and she said there were multiple groups on basswood raiding camps with no regard to humans. Talked to the ranger and the DNR at Tower hoping someone would go out and take care of this issue.

I posted an earlier thread about a conversation I had with a ranger in Ely. She said that because it is so dry, there are no berries and the bears are hungry...she expects an above average number of bear encounters. The bear with three cubs on Agnes had been visiting the south side of the lake, and is now making rounds on the northern edge also. Same story - not afraid of humans, persistent, trying to get into food packs.