Hi all!

With the weather turning cold, I'm beginning to daydream about the upcoming ice season and I'm now mulling over a possible BWCA winter trip this January.

With that being said, what is your favorite BWCA winter destination? I like the Ely area during winter time, and I specifically like camping on Wood. But, I'd like to shake things up a bit! Maybe try a smaller lake and portage once or twice.

Where do you like to go? Are there good ice fishing opportunities there? Any special picturesque scenes only available during hard water? Solitude?

I've only done three trips so far. Seagull, Daniels and a local lake. Seagull was my favorite by far. The huge expanse of frozen ice was intimidating at first but the chance of an enormous laker, plenty of firewood, tons of islands to hide out of the wind and fairly easy access we pluses. Granted, we went in late March and travel conditions, while still fridged, we fast. Zero slush. Looking forward to going back this year with a trout opener trip to Duncan in the works as well.

I am right with you, I can't wait for the lakes to freeze. My favorite trip so far was probably to wine lake. Complete solitude and good fishing. Although I plan to go back there someday I have so many other places I would like to get to first. We like to push the limits of how far we can go with a backup plan if travel conditions become rough. My dream is to someday take a 15-20 day trip from the Ely side to the Gunflint side hitting up as many lakes as I can to fish. Might had to wait until the kids are out of the house for that one.

quote Gadfly: "I am right with you, I can't wait for the lakes to freeze. My favorite trip so far was probably to wine lake. Complete solitude and good fishing. Although I plan to go back there someday I have so many other places I would like to get to first. We like to push the limits of how far we can go with a backup plan if travel conditions become rough. My dream is to someday take a 15-20 day trip from the Ely side to the Gunflint side hitting up as many lakes as I can to fish. Might had to wait until the kids are out of the house for that one. "

That would be a good march trip with long warm days. Been from Ely to Knife and Saganaga lake to Knife and thru Sea Gull.
That would be a nice trip one way from the Gunflint to Ely. Lot of option routes.