I'm hoping someone can help---I just realized that I scheduled my entry permit for the day before we can get into the BWCA.

I have people flying in town in two weeks at 4pm into the Twin Cities and then we have a 5 hr drive north. We can't get into the BWCA that night given the time and we are renting canoes the next day from an outfitter. I can't find another permit that day; it's a 3 day trip with no wiggle room on either end.

What should I do? Thanks in advance for any ideas-I'm open to any suggestions.

If *you* can leave a day early, so you go in on the day of your permit, you can have your friends come in and find you on the next day. They can get a day permit, which have not daily quotas and are free. The caveat is they must find you that day.

I have done a variation of this once. We ended up being several hours late and our group left without us. We filled out a day permit and went in. This was over Memorial Day. A ranger stopped us and questioned why we had so much gear for "just a day trip". We explained our situation and gave him the name of the group leader. The ranger had already talked to those members of our party, so he knew we were telling the truth. He said, "Carry on" but warned us we needed to allow enough time to get all the way back out that day if we couldn't find them. We did catch up with our group, and all was fine.

As a fallback if you must go in the day after your permit says you should, you could pick a lake outside the BWCAW, set up a base camp there, and take day trips into the BWCAW.

So your permit is for the day that the out of town folks are flying in?

If you are local, drive up that day, get your permit and put everyone's name on it , pay for the total number of people, and get enough slips on your permit for the total number of canoes you will have. Then head in at your entry point and get a camp site. The next day the others can paddle in on a day paddle permit to meet you.

Two years ago, I went in on a Wednesday and had others come in and meet me on Friday. I confirmed that this is a legal option with one of the rangers at the ranger station in Ely.

rpike beat me to the submit button lol.

I've also joined a trip in progress using a day permit to get to them, it was nerve wracking but worked out fine. You need to have a plan for where to meet, so you're certain you meet up, but it works.

If that makes you nervous, there's almost always *somewhere* with a permit available. It might be somewhere like hegman or Stuart River though, so if you have beginners that may not be a good plan.

Thanks! I decided to find a different EP-not an ideal setup but makes me a little less worried about finding people who haven't really paddled or been up to the BWCA.

A new EP sounds like a good approach, especially with newcomers.

But before I saw this it did get me thinking about meeting strategies. We once met up with another group mid-trip. We had two permits (and two different EPs) so not finding each other wasn't a huge problem but we did want to meet up. We picked a series of campsites and they were supposed to have some Tibetan prayer flags to mark it. Of course, they forgot the flags and were off on a day trip when we got there. My wife did eventually convince us that the preferred site was their gear (two little girls on the trip meant tiny pink shoes lying around) and so we landed and found the note saying sorry for forgetting the flags.

It could have been good to have a fall back location such as a portage. Such as, if we haven't found each other by 5pm, meet at this portage landing. That way you have a fallback if the first group has had to go to a campsite that wasn't on the list of preferred sites and you can't find each other.

Morph,

I think that a new EP is your only choice if everyone is riding with you up from the twin cities. Which entry point & what date? Perhaps someone on this board will read this and be willing to switch with you if their schedule allows. You would have to time it correctly with the releasing of the permits and reserving the new one for each party.

Thanks everyone. I switched my permit dates and picked a less ideal spot but at least we can be together and get in on the real date. This is for my 40th birthday party so it had extra pressure on it to go well!

Happy Birthday and have a good trip! I'm another year older tomorrow :)