Good morning, I just booked my first trip on the Boundary Waters for July. I'll be going in at Entry Point 19 Stuart River and exiting via Entry Point 16 Moose River North. We'll be taking six days to make the trip. We'd like to layover for two nights on one campsite. Should we stay on Stuart, Iron, or Lac La Croix for two nights? Any other tips for these lakes and for a first trip to the BW?

This is a great trip! I would ask what you want to do. If you like catching eater sized walleye in near solitude, stay on Stuart. It's wonderful.

My best buddy did the trip last year but said Dahlgren River was really low and swampy. He claimed he would not go that way again too soon!

Stuart River opening portage is very long so don't let that get to you.

I've not been to Iron but hear the walleye fishing is legendary. LLC is really nice and the campsites around that area that lead back down to Moose River North are all very nice.

I prefer traveling along the Boulder River, too. That curves and leads back to Agnes, then down to your exit area.

Good luck!!

Any would be fine. Iron is an easy 2 day paddle to exit 16. I presume you would want your last night on Agnes or just above it on boulder bay. Stuart is nice if you want your layover that early in the trip. I would play it by ear. Wind and weather May pick your layover camp for you.

quote pastorjsackett: "This is a great trip! I would ask what you want to do. If you like catching eater sized walleye in near solitude, stay on Stuart. It's wonderful.


My best buddy did the trip last year but said Dahlgren River was really low and swampy. He claimed he would not go that way again too soon!


Stuart River opening portage is very long so don't let that get to you.


I've not been to Iron but hear the walleye fishing is legendary. LLC is really nice and the campsites around that area that lead back down to Moose River North are all very nice.


I prefer traveling along the Boulder River, too. That curves and leads back to Agnes, then down to your exit area.


Good luck!!"

We are going out the other portage through Fox and I believe Rush Lake. I've read horror stories about the Dahlgren!

Great choice. I'm doing that exact trip in June. I love Iron and usually layover there whenever possible. You can check out Curtain Falls and Peterson Bay while you're there. Lots of people like the bottle portage route back to LLC, but I like the one on the west end of Iron, it dumps you out right at the Ranger Cabin on LLC which is always fun to see. Enjoy your trip, you won't regret it. As others stated, don't be discouraged by the long portage at the start. It will all be worth it when you see Stuart Lake for the first time.

quote anthonyp007: "Great choice. I'm doing that exact trip in June. I love Iron and usually layover there whenever possible. You can check out Curtain Falls and Peterson Bay while you're there. Lots of people like the bottle portage route back to LLC, but I like the one on the west end of Iron, it dumps you out right at the Ranger Cabin on LLC which is always fun to see. Enjoy your trip, you won't regret it. As others stated, don't be discouraged by the long portage at the start. It will all be worth it when you see Stuart Lake for the first time. "

I'd love to hear about your trip when you get back! What's the significance of Peterson Bay? It sounds like from what you are saying that we could possibly do two nights on Stuart, two nights on Iron, a night in Boulder or Tiger Bay, and then just paddle out from Boulder bay on the sixth day.

Very doable. Dahlgren was good for us but we do May when water levels are usually higher. I personally like thru bottle better than long bog from west iron. A couple horror stories there too. You go by ranger boathouse cabin anyway if you portage to boulder bay after paddling down from bottle portage.Both boulder and bottle rivers are cool but Don't try to paddle bottle river. Have hiked/fished it though. Curtain is cool. Boulder bay has some nice camps. Join up and search/research.......alot of info there.

Very doable. Dahlgren was good for us but we do May when water levels are usually higher. I personally like thru bottle better than long bog from west iron. A couple horror stories there too. You go by ranger boathouse cabin anyway if you portage to boulder bay after paddling down from bottle portage.Both boulder and bottle rivers are cool but Don't try to paddle bottle river. Have hiked/fished it though. Curtain is cool. Boulder bay has some nice camps. Join up and search/research.......alot of info there.

quote EagleBox : "

quote anthonyp007: "Great choice. I'm doing that exact trip in June. I love Iron and usually layover there whenever possible. You can check out Curtain Falls and Peterson Bay while you're there. Lots of people like the bottle portage route back to LLC, but I like the one on the west end of Iron, it dumps you out right at the Ranger Cabin on LLC which is always fun to see. Enjoy your trip, you won't regret it. As others stated, don't be discouraged by the long portage at the start. It will all be worth it when you see Stuart Lake for the first time. "

I'd love to hear about your trip when you get back! What's the significance of Peterson Bay? It sounds like from what you are saying that we could possibly do two nights on Stuart, two nights on Iron, a night in Boulder or Tiger Bay, and then just paddle out from Boulder bay on the sixth day."

You could totally stay two on Stuart, two on Iron and last night on Agnes or Boulder Bay. I'd just try and get to your last camp earlier than later in the day as Boulder and Agnes can fill up quickly after lunch. I'll be posting a video and writing a trip report after my trip. We're going 5 days in June and then I'm taking my son and dad on a similar trip in October. It's a favorite area for me. Lots of big Crappies back in Peterson Bay, caught a 17" last year (I know one of the resort owners has an annual in-house big crappie contest and the winner often comes from Peterson Bay). I've paddled out from Iron to EP 16 in one day. Took about 7 hours double portaging with my dad who has an artificial knee. Very doable.

In May 08

I did the same route in September of 2015. 6 nights, 2 on Stuart, 2 on Agnes. I needed the layover on Stuart to recover from day one, and it was great. Day trip to the Dahlgren river, a beautiful portage through old pines that ends at a pretty waterfall.
My plan was to get the island site on Iron, and fish Peterson Bay as a layover. The site was taken, and I was less than happy with the site I ended up on. High winds the 2nd t day helped me to decide to travel to Agnes and spend 2 days there. 4 hours or so from Agnes to the parking lot on the last day.
Portaging through Dark, Rush, Fox to Iron is a good workout, doing it again, I would spend the 2nd day on Iron. Less people on a bigger lake, check out Curtain Falls, etc. Have a great trip!

quote overthehill: "In May 08 "

That is a pretty dark fish and a nice one! What did ya catch it on?

Night crawler for the first two and the switched to a 'Chippewa Charlie' for the rest. There were several close to that one and none under 14. Then they shut down.sw bay near perfect to rush

Oh Mike; was smallie fishing on Shenandoah this AM and caught a couple 2 pounders on a ztoo. Switched to a 7" jerk shadz in the color 'glow' just to see. On a zman trigger hook. I had found that rockfish liked them in the bay and thought striped or smally are both bass.....so after drifting a bit while tying .....boom! Muskey! Just shy of 3' long tied direct to 10 lb XL. My first muskey. It was a thrill.

I'd do one night on Stuart, two on Iron and two on LLC. I did this loop last fall and did a video report if you want a preview ;).

Trip Report

I love this area and entry and agree with everything posted here. I also did Stuart for my first BWCA trip, which was full of rookie mistakes that are now funny to look back on. Hopefully this is entertaining if nothing else.

1. Overpacking in general, but more specifically we really overestimated how much drinking we would do. Packed a 1.75L of whiskey and one of blackberry brandy. Brilliant...Both the sheer amount and the size of the bottles. (If boozing is your thing, smaller bottles pack better). We barely put a dent in it.
2. Missed a portage on Stuart River. Once we figured that out, we thought we could just keep going by walking the canoe. Eventually realized we couldn't. Bushwhacked through the woods somewhat lost for a while. It was awesome.
3. Finally found the end of the portage that we had missed, and proceeded to leave our fishing poles there. Took about another hour of travel to realize it before we went back for them.
4. Got a late start on a windy day before hitting big water on Crooked Lake. Shot straight across the biggest bay and nearly got swamped out in the middle. That particular rookie mistake is NOT so funny. If memory serves correct, we might not have even been wearing our PFD's. Dumb dumb dumb.
5. Left ourselves a very long paddle on the last day. Exited Mudro at 8pm.
6. Ruined a map by getting DEET on it.

Despite the rough first trip, I've taken Stuart River two other times. Iron is my favorite lake and if possible I would spend two nights there. You really can't go wrong in any of those lakes though. If you go to check out Curtain Falls (I'd recommend it), DO NOT attempt to go up the swift current at the very end of the falls. This might seem like a "Yeah, no kidding" statement, but it's deceiving. I've heard multiple stories about it (one from an old Voyageur book). I got talked into making a run at it and got through (sort of...I had to quickly jump out of the canoe and walk it to shore), but we were very lucky to not go for a swim. Apparently there's a smaller second portage tucked into a little bay that I will definitely make a point of finding next time there.

Based on your route, I would guess you won't go this way, but I went from Stuart Lake up to Boulder/Tiger Bay via Dahlgren River last July and I didn't think it was bad. Stuart to Dahlgren portage is very nice. It'd be a bummer to not make it to Iron, but if you end up loving Stuart Lake and want to take it easier than planned and explore more of La Croix, this would be a good alternate plan. In fact it's exactly what happened with my trip last year, and I had your route in mind. Travel slowly if you take the (appropriately named) Boulder River.

Again, I love this area. Great choice. Hope to hear how it goes!

quote tonyj: "I love this area and entry and agree with everything posted here. I also did Stuart for my first BWCA trip, which was full of rookie mistakes that are now funny to look back on. Hopefully this is entertaining if nothing else.


1. Overpacking in general, but more specifically we really overestimated how much drinking we would do. Packed a 1.75L of whiskey and one of blackberry brandy. Brilliant...Both the sheer amount and the size of the bottles. (If boozing is your thing, smaller bottles pack better). We barely put a dent in it.
2. Missed a portage on Stuart River. Once we figured that out, we thought we could just keep going by walking the canoe. Eventually realized we couldn't. Bushwhacked through the woods somewhat lost for a while. It was awesome.
3. Finally found the end of the portage that we had missed, and proceeded to leave our fishing poles there. Took about another hour of travel to realize it before we went back for them.
4. Got a late start on a windy day before hitting big water on Crooked Lake. Shot straight across the biggest bay and nearly got swamped out in the middle. That particular rookie mistake is NOT so funny. If memory serves correct, we might not have even been wearing our PFD's. Dumb dumb dumb.
5. Left ourselves a very long paddle on the last day. Exited Mudro at 8pm.
6. Ruined a map by getting DEET on it.


Despite the rough first trip, I've taken Stuart River two other times. Iron is my favorite lake and if possible I would spend two nights there. You really can't go wrong in any of those lakes though. If you go to check out Curtain Falls (I'd recommend it), DO NOT attempt to go up the swift current at the very end of the falls. This might seem like a "Yeah, no kidding" statement, but it's deceiving. I've heard multiple stories about it (one from an old Voyageur book). I got talked into making a run at it and got through (sort of...I had to quickly jump out of the canoe and walk it to shore), but we were very lucky to not go for a swim. Apparently there's a smaller second portage tucked into a little bay that I will definitely make a point of finding next time there.


Based on your route, I would guess you won't go this way, but I went from Stuart Lake up to Boulder/Tiger Bay via Dahlgren River last July and I didn't think it was bad. Stuart to Dahlgren portage is very nice. It'd be a bummer to not make it to Iron, but if you end up loving Stuart Lake and want to take it easier than planned and explore more of La Croix, this would be a good alternate plan. In fact it's exactly what happened with my trip last year, and I had your route in mind. Travel slowly if you take the (appropriately named) Boulder River.


Again, I love this area. Great choice. Hope to hear how it goes! "

I've seen multiple groups dump it at the bottom of Curtain. You're right, it's pretty sneaky. That "safe" portage you're referring to is around the south side. Pretty much a straight shot from the northeast campsite. L

Stuart has one of my favorite campsites (1823) on the tip of the big northeast peninsula. A flat rock on ledge on the water, grassy area up top and a sloping connection between the two. Twenty foot cliff drop off on the west side. Wide open 270 degree view. Walleye off the west side ledge with bobbers.

Some panoramas of that site:

Stuart Lake 2013

+1 on portage along Curtain to Crooked. Swing south of outlet near that camp. It will fool you. I've seen two dumps and met a group on bottle that had just dumped and heard about more times.