This season I will be traveling up the Basswood River to Basswood Lake. On previous trips I have done the relatively easy 340 rod portage around the upper part of the river and the upper falls into Basswood Lake. I know that is faster and easier but I would actually like to see the upper portion of the river and the upper falls.

Are their more frequent shorter portages along the upper section of the river (US or Canadian side does not matter) that I could use so as to paddle this portion of the river and see the rapids and falls along the way?

My Fisher Map does not show any.

Not for paddling, current is too strong.

There are some easy to find spur trails that can be used for downstream travel. You could hike them and some offer good Shore fishing. This is not for the inexperienced paddlers. You are a long way from help and some have flipped and drowned here. I hate to see aluminum wrapped rocks.

Water levels are up. I don't think short cuts are wise. I had to rescue an inexperienced group trying to avoid the long portage. Thankfully they only lost a paddle.

Be smart, use the portages.

I'm not a risk taker for the most part. Everyone's input has been invaluable. Sounds like I need to park my outfit out of the way somewhere along the portage and explore the side trails leading over to the upper falls and rapids.

Does anyone know if there are any similar type trails along the Canadian shoreline.

I looked for trails on Canuck side and didn't find any about 20 years ago. There were some trails and campsites on a couple of islands.

the route used by the native american and the voyageurs did not use the existing 340 rod portage. it's been years since i canoed this section of river, memories are fuzzy but i don't recall it being dangerous. obviously if you get swept into a rapids it can become dangerous, don't do that. per my voyageur history books they used two portages here, the info is vague, but the portages were short and in typical voyageur style they began as close to the falls / rapids as was possible. photo of an old (70s) map showing the falls area.







the graphics on this map are garbage. useless maps that we used for years.