As a resource of info for planning our future canoe trips can you give a brief summary of dates, lakes and encounters in 2014. For those desiring maximum solitude this could aid in planning for 2015.

OK. When we return I'll post up.

quote Marten: "As a resource of info for planning our future canoe trips can you give a brief summary of dates, lakes and encounters in 2014. For those desiring maximum solitude this could aid in planning for 2015."

I'll just add quickly here that I was part of foursome that flew into Carrol and went down the Gammon to Glen and then out Telescope/Embryo to Hatchets and Douglas.

There were a fair amount of boats on much of this route as well as a few fish camps. Some occupied, especially Carrol, Donald. Many not. Mid-route was fairly empty in terms of other encounters so we had about 5 or 6 days in the middle of a 10 day trip with no encounters (except the walleye :).

Dates of trip: July 12 - 21st

HighnDry,

Your report is just what I was hoping for. It reinforces what I have found: Carroll and Donald will have boats but further east on that route you are less likely to see anyone on the water.

Haven't been there this year. I've seen boats on Hammerhead to Hansen also on Gammon. Both on shore and in use. Brain freeze with lake names... My friend Jerry saw a Woodland Caribou on the next lake up from Hansen (Roustol?) and was waiting to point it out to me and a boat came and scared it off. But there are so many lakes they aren't in, so encountering them is no big deal... boats that is.

Juat got back Olive down to Lund...saw NO ONE except a fishing boat on Knox. Put in August 2 Take out August 7th (5 nights) I traveled every day. No Moose, No Caribou, Lots of Loons and Eagles. A few LONG portages. Knox Creek going South out of Young after the 100 M portage a bit plugged up with new fallen trees, got a little tired of pulling over that crap, and the last 300 M of the 1500 M portage out of Knox going East was pure MUD ankle deep sometimes knee deep, but a good trip. Young Lake was my favorite followed by the No Name lake right East of Knox, that is a darn pretty lake lots of granite and a few islands. Karma the Lab really liked it also. Just a little bit low water in some area's but not immpossible to pass, in a dry year in August it could be "tough" in a few spots...

SunCatcher

Group camped on Mexican Hat.

Passed a canoe paddling on Aegean.

Passed a solo on shore on Paull (think it was oldzip)

On our takeout there were 6 cars in Leano parking, none at Onie (sp) and 1 car at Johnson.

Two reports from early August from some friends of mine.
Group 1- 10 days- Wallace Lake-Broken Arrow-Haggart Lake-Bulging- Haggart River but back west to Crystal: two paddlers at a camp on Haggart Lake 4 paddlers seen on the portage exiting Haggart River towards Crystal.

Group 2-10 days- Douglas- Hatchet- Embryo- Telescope- Onnie- Douglas:Three groups seen on Douglas- one group at Embryo portage

Early August trip...entered at Johnson traveled to Hammerhead, Royd, Minjim Route, Crystal and back to Johnson.

Saw a total of 8 canoes and a fair number of boats close to the fly-in lakes.

One of the 8 canoes was Waleswalker and his paddling partner...meet at a portage and had a nice chat.

scot

quote scot320: "Early August trip...entered at Johnson traveled to Hammerhead, Royd, Minjim Route, Crystal and back to Johnson.


Saw a total of 8 canoes and a fair number of boats close to the fly-in lakes.


One of the 8 canoes was Waleswalker and his paddling partner...meet at a portage and had a nice chat.


scot
"

Wow, nice trip. Sounds like my 2011 trip. Did you go Johnson to Glenn and Hansen to get to Hammerhead? I don't think I've seen eight canoes total in my four trips up there including a 26 day in 2012. Thanks for posting.

Hey Ben,

Yes we did go threw Glen and Hansen to get to Hammerhead.

We saw one group of 4, one Group of 3 and then Waleswalker.

Saw no one on the MinJim.

quote scot320: "Hey Ben,


Yes we did go threw Glen and Hansen to get to Hammerhead.


We saw one group of 4, one Group of 3 and then Waleswalker.


Saw no one on the MinJim."

Did Waleswalker(Jim M.)happen to mention that the Minjim name is in tribute to his efforts in a 2009 bushwhack exploration of the route? The park put the finishing touches on the route last month. The park does not name routes but the "Minjim" seems here to stay.

Yes Martin...Jim did mention that, I also thought I had read it somewhere also but maybe not.

He also said with a smile, that you are an animal when it comes to bushwhacking a new route.

The route was good (a real character builder as my son would say) except I think the last creek to North Prairie. The beavers had it dammed up and was holding back like 6 ft. of water...we had to pull the canoe almost all the way threw to Prairie.

Some Joey lake walleye made it to the frying pan.

Favorite lake in Woodland to date... Constellation.

Thanks again for sharing the route.

8/14-8/23 -- Canoes and motor boats encountered on Douglas, Embryo, Telescope, Optic. No surprise, I guess, but the number of canoes we saw was more than one a day.

Hey Jim,

What was your route?

Scot

quote scot320: "Hey Ben,


Yes we did go threw Glen and Hansen to get to Hammerhead.


We saw one group of 4, one Group of 3 and then Waleswalker.


Saw no one on the MinJim."

We did that route in mid-July and saw only one boat on Hammerhead and one boat on Hansen. That was it.

quote scot320: "Hey Jim,


What was your route?


Scot"

Douglas, Hatchet, Upper Hatchet, Embryo, Telescope, Stuart, Edgar, Optic and back out the same way. Between Andy and I we have maybe 1/2 of a good knee, and various other issues limited our traveling ability, so we took it easy and enjoyed as much of the park as we could.

Sounds like you had a great time, looking forward to the trip report.

Anybody going back in September or October? Is there much risk with weather in October?

Scot

Dates = August 7 - 16
Entry and exit = Leano Lake
General route = Leano, Kilburn, Paull, Aegean, Wrist, Haven, Hansen, Glenn, Mexican Hat, Lunch, Leano

2 groups of 4 on Kilburn
1 group of 2 and 1 solo on Paull
1 group of 2 on Haven Creek
1 group of 2 on Rostuol
1 boat with 2 on Hansen
1 group of 4 between Hansen and Glenn
1 group of 2 entering Leano as I was leaving

Caveat on what I am about to write - I know that I traveled among the most traveled area in WCPP AND that I do not go to BWCAW between mid June and mid August AND that I go in more than a few lakes and will often have a longer portage or more:

I saw at least as many people, if not more than on most of my BWCAW trips in May and late August/September. And there is more airplane noise. Further there was a fair amount of trash at a couple of camp sites. The fishing seemed better overall in WCPP, but I fish for food, so once I have a fish or two, I almost always quit fishing.

WCPP is certainly a cool and beautiful place to paddle, and there are interesting differences in ecoctones from northern WI and MN. I have not yet been to Quetico, but I am guessing it would hold similar to what I just said and what follows. I probably will go to WCPP again, but my experience is that it is not that significantly different in terms of solitude from my May trips to BWCAW, but adds a lot more time and cost to the trip. And if I do go, I was already eyeing a trip to the northeast and north central part of the park (prior to seeing the posts on that topic).

Dates - August 9 - 31
We put-in on Olive and travelled south through LInge, Knox, Indian House and then east through Crystal, Bell, Page and Hatchet with take out at Red Lake. Obviously we weren't pushing - lots of layovers to fish and generally relax.
We were on the water for 23 days. On day 20 we encountered our first and only humans, a single tandem canoe on the creek between Bell and Page. That was it!

Our trip this year was end of June through July 5th. We traveled Bigshell to Thicketwood through Larus to Murdoch and Knox, then south to Indian House, then east through Crystal, Bell, Page, then through Hachett and out through Douglas. We saw: people from the fish camp on Larus (also stayed with them one night and saved our butts in 4 foot rollers), we saw fisherman on Murdoch and on Knox, we saw a group of 14 paddlers going across Knox, we ran into a group of 9-10 people on the portage out of Knox. We didn't see another person until we got picked up on Douglas. We never even saw a boat on Red Lake.

Joe and went from Artery to Johnson EP over the dates of August 17-29.

A group of 5 from Florida paddled by our campsite on Mary's/Bloodvein river the first evening, they ran into us again on the creek that leads into Dunston a few nights later, we saw a family of 5 on the island site on Dunston, a group of 4 paddled past our campsite in a pouring rain on Glenn.

One of the amazing things was given all the resorts and outpost camps we went by we did not see any motor boats or fisherman until we reached Douglas where we saw one motor boat a long ways up the lake. All outpost cabins we went by were either empty or even had their docks pulled up for the season. Not even up on the Bloodvein.

Total was 14 people in three groups on three of the 13 days we were there-that meant there were 10 days where we saw no one else and we were on lakes that we expected to see a few paddlers and outpost guests.