Good day to everyone. I have been following this site/forums for about a month now, but recently joined. I am planning a trip for the middle of this July. There will be three of us in our group (Four if you count our mutt). We will be traveling by canoe and 1 kayaker. I am considering 2 routes but looking for input. 1 may be too ambitious, and the other I feel would be fine. We are entering Tuesday and leaving Saturday. I am wondering if I am in for a punishing trip for a four night plan I I go this route:

Option 1
Day 1: EP 23-Mudro-Sandpit-Tin Can-Horse-Horse River-Basswood Falls/River Area
Day 2: North Through Cooked-Across Thursday- North End of Friday Bay
Day 3: South End Friday Bay-Papoose-Chippewa-Nikki-Wagosh-Gun Lake
Day 4: Gun Lake-Gull Lake-Mudhole-Thunder-Beartrap
Day 5: Beartrap-Thunder-Mudhole-Gull-Gun-Fairy-Boot-Fourtown-Mudro-EP 23

Option 2
Day 1: EP 23 Mudro-Fourtown-Boot-Fairy
Day 2: Fairy-Gun-Gull-Mudhole-Thunder-Beartrap
Day 3: Beartrap-Thunder-Mudhole-Gull-Gun-Bullet-Moosecamp
Day 4: Moosecamp-Mooscamp River-Northend of Fourtown
Day 5: Fourtown-Mudro-EP 23

I am open to any suggestions/thoughts. Planning is everything as you all know

Have a great day!
Tom

Do you have your permit reserved already? There are almost none left in mid July for that EP. I’m also thinking that lots of portaging may be difficult for the kayaker. So if you really want to stick with that EP, you might want to stick with option 2.

Both loops are very nice, and doable in the time frame, but option 1 is far more demanding for sure, depends on your experience and fitness levels.

For reference after driving up from the cities, Mudro to Gull (double portage, solo canoe) is about as far as I have wanted to go on day 1. On the last day I have left from Beartrap and driven home but that was very tiring.

If you are feeling like a higher mileage trip Option 1 is the choice, you can always modify when you get to Gun and detour towards Moosecamp or Boot, and out. Other than the big Gun Wagosh portage, days 3 and 4 seem pretty easy, just lots of little lakes and little portages. Days 1 and 5 seem longest to me.

Option 2 you are still moving every day but less time/distance spent traveling. Certainly a more relaxing trip, with options to basecamp or travel, you don't get to see basswood falls.

Beartrap is a premier lake with a single campsite, it may be taken, Thunder has a few cool sites though.

Hopefully your friend's kayak setup portages well. Have you checked out paddle planner?

I don't know your experience or how far you can go in a day, but you do plan to travel every day - do you have a plan for dealing with significant weather delays? If the kayaker does not have experience and a well-thought out system for portaging, that could slow you down. Advice on portaging a kayak can be had from kayakers here.

An option might be to reverse your travel direction on #1 so that day 5 becomes day 1 and like option 2. If you don't reach Fairy easily, you'll know to do the shorter loop.

quote inspector13: "
Do you have your permit reserved already? There are almost none left in mid July for that EP. I’m also thinking that lots of portaging may be difficult for the kayaker. So if you really want to stick with that EP, you might want to stick with option 2.


"

We do have our permit. The kayak might slow us down some, that's a concern for option 1. If we were going for more nights I wouldn't have as much concern.

Like we will be hauling our canoe and kayak with my 3 by 8 trailer. To the best of anyone's knowledge is there room for me to park a little Trailer like that still hooked on to our car or would it be wiser for me to unhook it and slide most of the tongue and front end of the trailer under the vehicle? Just looking for a little bit of input. Thanks in advance

You should be able to leave your trailer on and maybe locked to your vehicle. The first option is doable, but maybe skip bear trap and have one off day. The long portage may be a little tough with a kayak. I'd leave the beartrap option in there, but make that decision when you get there.

Traveling with a canoe means the the kayak won't slow you down at all. Get a universal portage yoke for the yak (I think Voyageur North has these available to rent). It will portage as easily, or maybe even easier, than the canoe will.

The only reason a kayak could slow you down would be because of the packing and unpacking of gear from the hatches. Use the canoe as the gear hauler and that problem goes away. The kayak will be much faster on the water than the canoe.

That said Option 1 is an awesome route but you may be a little ambitious on a four-nighter with your side trip to Beartrap. We're doing the same trip with Beartrip but are planning 6 nights. But we plan on doing a lot of fishing.

Well...a little late, but thought I'd share some pics from our trip. The first 3 days we have some serious rain and temps down into the 40s but we still had a great time.