My fist trip to the BW way back in 1983 me and my girlfriend (now wife) entered at Homer Lake and on a portage a couple of guys coming the other way told us about having a bear in their camp.

Being green as ever I decided to really make sure our food was hung high.  We camped on Juno Lake that first night and hung a weeks worth of food under the "bear pole" between two trees. The forest service would tie a wooden pole between two high trees back then.

I thought we were good.  Long story short a massive black bear casually walked into camp after dark.  It rattled the canoe, licked ants out of a rotting piece of wood by the fire pit, came right up to the tent and gave it a sniff all the while I'm banging 2 steel cups together standing at the door.

It calmly left our camp and 10 minutes later we heard a large crash back in the forest.  I didn't dare go back there.  Next morning we were cleaned out.  Everything except the coffee grounds was consumed.  We paddled out the next day through Brule Lake and spent the week at the Grand Marais campground.  In 19 trips since then I have yet to see another bear.