I've gone to the BWCA three times with my cousin, and I'm looking at 2 trips this year, including my first solo. Any thoughts/tips would be appreciated. I'm going in on Snowbank to Boot to Ensign to Vera to Knife to Kekekabic then down to Frazer and Thomas before heading out through Ima - Jordan - Disappointment. Planning on seven or eight days. day 1 hoping to reach Vera; day 2 get to knife and stop at Isles of Pines and Thunderpoint on my way down to the Eddy Falls, hoping to stay on knife; day three get to Kekekabic and try to stay on campsite #1422 one night and #1472 for another. Looking at hiking the kek trail at least to the tower site and check out the ranger cabin. Also hoping to catch my first Laker!; day 5 & 6 - hoping to spend a couple days on Thomas and maybe catch the grand slam there. day 7 heading to dissappointment to get an early out on day 8. Questions: If you had to extend this trip 1 day were would you go and what would you do? Thanks for any advice! I was originally planning on just doing my first solo on Sawbill, but I read Boonie's solo report and said "I can do this!" I've been training 8-10hrs a week and actually carried my canoe a mile a few times, with 20 lbs of dog food in my Granite Gear Quetico portage pack.

Sounds like a fun trip. Watch out for the wind on Snowbank. That is a pretty popular route. Get going early to get a better selection of camp sites.

"Yes you can!" With that training schedule and the route indicated you can do it and you can have a great time. Good weather and wind to you.

Ill be doing this route at the end of the month :)

"Bushwack" into one of the many easy access lakes in the spider lake pma and be sure to let us know what you catch!

Sounds like a very nice route. For an extra day idea, you could hike to Mt disappointment east of the lake, or one of the many other hiking trails in that area.

The only concern I have for you is your selection of dehydrated food (dog food?!). To each his own ;-)

Have a wonderful trip.

30Smoke-

Hey, I didn't mean to be inspirational, man ;) But yes, you can do it, and it sounds like you're well on your way to be prepared. That training and preparation will pay dividends. I'm not familiar with your route, but I hope you have a good trip! When are you going?

You might want to introduce yourself to the solo tripping forum if you haven't already. I try to lighten the load and keep food preparation and other camp chores simple.

If I had an extra day, if the weather was good, and if I was covering more miles than anticipated on my first solo - a lot of "ifs" there - I might take an extra layover day and daytrip or I might just go for a longer route. On the other hand, I might just take a nap ;). I'm not really familiar with your options to the NE and the ones I did south and east might add too much . . . not really sure. Maybe I'll send you an email later with some thoughts.

I appreciate the idea's. I'm planning on going in on May 16 - 23? Nice weather would be great, but I'm going to enjoy the trip either way.

quote 30Smoke: "I appreciate the idea's. I'm planning on going in on May 16 - 23? Nice weather would be great, but I'm going to enjoy the trip either way."

Ill be up there in overlapping days - right now the long range forecast looks like warm and wet.. but who knows how accurate that will be.

Great route, I've done most of it before on a trip. As others have mentioned, it's a popular route, so plan on getting an early start so you can set up camp reasonably early in the afternoon. It's early in the season, so that should help as well. When I paddled through Disappointment at the end of a trip we checked every single campsite and they were all taken. This was the middle of June probably at 7 or 8 pm, so that's on me mostly. Either way, it's a popular lake. Ahsub also has a couple decent sites, so you might consider staying there if the sites are open.

Highlights of that trip for us included South Arm of Knife for fishing (walleye and smallmouth is what we targeted), Kekekabic for scenery (I also caught my first few lake trout there - the southwest corner of the lake around the islands were best for us). Wisini was surprisingly pretty. I really liked the campsite in the middle of the lake where it narrows. Nice multi level site with good views into both bays of the lake.

Thomas is a scenic lake, but we struggled with fishing there. Lots of good island campsites.

Should be a great trip!