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cooke350
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06/27/2017 07:55AM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
Is anyone familiar with EP50? None of us have been here, but it looks like a decent place to go with kids... Portages not too hard to get to camp and offers some day trips. Wondering what the walleye fishing is like on the lakes in that area? Also, any sites with decent swimming options for the kiddos?

 
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TuscaroraBorealis
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06/27/2017 08:38AM  
We exited out of Cross Bay last spring. Trip report

I don't consider Cross Bay to be a great route for walleye fishing but, I believe a few of the lakes might harbor a few. Check the MN DNR Lake finder

If you can make it to Long Island Lake? There are plenty of sandy spots ideal for swimming. AND, if you do get that far, a day trip to Frost Lake and it's huge beach becomes a reality!

Nothing to avoid at all costs but, just a word of warning about some of the portages between Cross Bay and Long Island. There's not a whole lot of elevation change (which is good) but, some of the trails are plagued with nuisance melon sized boulders which can make getting proper footing difficult at times.
TipsyPaddler
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06/28/2017 05:02AM  
We just did a 4 night/ 5 day trip with two adults and two 13 year old boys out of EP50. We went to Frost and back stopping at a different campsite each afternoon. The portages are fairly short on average. The long portage into Frost was muddy in the middle but not very challenging. We were double portaging on the first two days and single portaging the last two days. The speed/time savings was a good motivator to review and lighten our gear next trip! We scored a nice island campsite on the western end of Long Island Lake the first night and felt like we had the entire lake to ourselves. On the way out (Friday) many of the Long Island Lake campsites we passed were taken. We stopped early afternoon and always got our "goal" campsite for the day.

A touching thing we experienced was a short chat with an older gentlemen and his dog on a portage who told us he was headed to Frost to scatter his recently deceased paddling partners ashes and say a prayer for him. Makes me want to amend my will.

We aren't fishermen so can't comment on quality of fishing on the route but only people I saw fishing were on Ham Lake near the EP and on Frost. None in between.

We didn't see many people on the first 2 days but as we got into the weekend and got closer to the EP the traffic levels steadily picked up.

Very easy trip and a great intro to canoe camping and the BWCA in my opinion.

We used Tuscarora Outfitters. Ada, Adam and crew were great.
Northwoodsman
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06/30/2017 07:59AM  
Great info. I'm going from EP #50 to Long Island and on to Cherokee in September. I am hoping that the melon-sized boulders are easier to navigate than the much larger ones coming in on the 3rd portage from Sawbill. That creek is no longer navigable and the portage is as flat as can be but the worst I have yet to encounter because of the rocks/boulders. We met a guy on that portage last year that looked like he did a triatholon every weekend, portaging with a small pack and a Magic. He had to drop his pack half way across because it was so bad. He said he has never done that before.

TB - for two older, out of shape guys would you recommend going all the way to Cherokee on day 1, or stopping at Long Island Lake? We went from #38 to Cherokee last fall in one day and it was about as much as I would want to do in a day. It took us over 7 hours. A cold front moved in during the early afternoon and we got soaked on a portage because our rain gear was at the other end already; the temp dropped about 20 degrees at the same time so we took it easy on the last long portage because we were miserable. I think Cherokee is possible in dry weather. If it is raining we will likely stop at Long Island if not before.
cooke350
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06/30/2017 08:31AM  
Thanks for the info! We booked the EP, just need to plan how far in we'll go, where we'll daytrip, where we'll fish, etc.

TB, are the sandy spots easy to find on Long Island? What about the beach on Frost?

TuscaroraBorealis
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06/30/2017 09:45AM  
quote Northwoodsman: "Great info. I'm going from EP #50 to Long Island and on to Cherokee in September. I am hoping that the melon-sized boulders are easier to navigate than the much larger ones coming in on the 3rd portage from Sawbill. That creek is no longer navigable and the portage is as flat as can be but the worst I have yet to encounter because of the rocks/boulders. We met a guy on that portage last year that looked like he did a triatholon every weekend, portaging with a small pack and a Magic. He had to drop his pack half way across because it was so bad. He said he has never done that before.


TB - for two older, out of shape guys would you recommend going all the way to Cherokee on day 1, or stopping at Long Island Lake? We went from #38 to Cherokee last fall in one day and it was about as much as I would want to do in a day. It took us over 7 hours. A cold front moved in during the early afternoon and we got soaked on a portage because our rain gear was at the other end already; the temp dropped about 20 degrees at the same time so we took it easy on the last long portage because we were miserable. I think Cherokee is possible in dry weather. If it is raining we will likely stop at Long Island if not before."


I'd definitely pull up at Long Island.
TuscaroraBorealis
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06/30/2017 09:47AM  
quote cooke350: "Thanks for the info! We booked the EP, just need to plan how far in we'll go, where we'll daytrip, where we'll fish, etc.

TB, are the sandy spots easy to find on Long Island? What about the beach on Frost?


"


You can't miss the expansive beach in the NE corner of Frost Lake.

As for Long Island; some aren't beaches per say - with large Sandy shorelines. But there is nice sand in the water, you just have to look a little. :) Two spots I recall are the landing for the portage in from Karl (see photo), and the western most campsite on the lake just north of the Long Island river.
TipsyPaddler
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06/30/2017 12:19PM  
Agree with TB. I fit the "older, out of shape" description too and would stop at Long Island from EP50 vs pushing on to Cherokee on first day. If you are single portaging and in great shape probably "doable" though. A nice thing about that route is there are a lot of campsites along it so if the weather or fates are against you that day you can easily modify your goals.

The sand beach on Frost I thought was just "OK" after all the hype I had read. Nice swim spot but there were a lot of leeches in shallow, sandy water. Maybe they are more a seasonal issue. Still I thought it was worth the long portage to see at least once. My boys enjoyed paddling out to the distinctive, white boulder and climbing on it for a while.
Northwoodsman
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06/30/2017 04:03PM  
As you enter Cherokee coming from the North there is a nice sandy beach to the west. If I had to guess maybe it's maybe a couple hundred yards. Follow the shore heading west. We were there last Sept. and a bald eagle sat up high on top of a tree and watched us almost the entire time.
 
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