I have been to the bwca around five times and have recently been on the site and reading a lot about iron lake. What I am wondering is what are peoples favorite routes to get there and what is the timeframe. I have read something about a tow, but have never used anything like that in my previous trips. I am thinking about setting up a trip for this fall and want to spend the majority of my time fishing. Any thoughts/recommendations??? Thanks

It's 2 day trip up EP16 for most or one real hard day up EP 16 for others. The fastest/easiest way into Iron is a tow from Crane Lake right to Bottle Portage. It costs roughly 180 bucks round trip per person.

If you are a glutton for punishment I would suggest entry point 19 stuart river. We just got back from a trip to this area, Iron and Stuart Lakes. The first portage is a you know what buster at a mile and a quarter, and then once you get to Stuart you get another miler on the way to Iron. This way did seem more direct for our group, plus we would rather portage than paddle on big water like Agnes or LLC. We single portage and made Iron lake in about 7-8 hours with a short lunch break. On the way home we broke the trip up and stayed at Stuart lake the night before we exited and made world record time out the next morning; Island campsite on Stuart to the parking lot in 3 hours and 10 minutes. Probably not your typical travel times, but we had some athletes on our trip. Realistically your looking at 4-6 hours to Stuart double portaging or even single and another 3-4 hours to Iron from Stuart. So basically, if you don't mind a little walk in the woods carrying a heavy pack and you break up the trip into two days, not that bad. The nice thing about this entry is only one permit is issued a day; a lot less traffic.

Both times I've been there, campsites were hard to find open. It was before noon too. Good fishing, but not incredibly better than Boulder River and Boulder Bay. Worth the trip though. EP16 or tow imo. Beartrap and Sterling are a lotta work! Decent steady 1 1/2 day up 16 or 2 hr tow across LaCroix thru the Queen's turf.