Back in September, I took my sister out on one last run out of Fall Lake up to Pipestone. Earlier this year, our dad passed away- this was his favorite area to go fishing in the BWCA. When I was younger, he and I went on several trips, over half of them were to this area. The other trips were out of Kawishiwi River, and then another time we barely scratched the surface so to speak on the Moose Lake route(s)...like we ended up in Ensign and base camped that trip. Now in my 40's, I'm finding I just enjoy getting out there by myself on nobody else's agenda. With the permits going live in a little over a month from now- any good suggestions out of the Ely entry points for mid-late September? I love fall so much, I love to fish...but that's a secondary priority on these trips for me. I definitely want to stick to smaller water. I thought about Mudro, Little Indian Sioux, or other similar route? I'd be going for 5-7 days solo, and it's more about getting in touch with my inner Ralph Waldo Emerson (finding solitude) than anything:-). Thoughts?

Never met this Ralph guy you speak of, but I have taken a few trips up L I S now and enjoy the area. Manageable portages. And if you paddle far enough you will see more solitude.

Those are the two I'm familiar with out of Ely and You'd probably enjoy the loop through the little lakes on Little Indian Sioux North. Mudro could also make you a nice loop. I did a couple of nice shorter trips in Little Isabella and Island River before the Pagami Creek fire.

LIS offers many options and side trips, a good choice.
If you want to stay east move deeper through Ima into Fraser and day trip farther east towards the Raven PMA, or even head in there for real privacy. A loop from Moose to the south arm of Knife, over the hill to Kekekabic and then out Fraser and Ima and through Ensign to Moose is a nice trip and by mid September not too busy.

The Mudro Loop to Horse River to Crooked to Fourtown back to Mudro is a nice loop. The really long portages are fairly flat. That section of Cooked Lake is gorgeous. The portages from Fourtown back to Mudro are a bit of a challenge. It's about 50 miles. I did it in 4 days, but should have done it in 5