Greetings!

1st Time planner here hoping to avoid major screw ups!

My sister and I are planning a trip, currently thinking about the end of May/early June. We’ll be driving up from the cities and will most likely shoot for a 2-3 night stay.

So far we are thinking of putting in at Little Gabbro and heading to Bald Eagle for a base camp.

I guess my biggest question is how popular this area is? It wouldn’t ruin my trip to see some fellow paddlers, but I also don’t want to have people on top of us the whole trip.

Any advice from those with experience is much appreciated!

-Banks

You will see other folks but shouldn't be bad. If you want a little more solitude portage to Turtle or Gull. Consider a day trip on Isabella River.

Late May shouldn't be too crowded, that's a popular area for families and they usually don't go until school's been out a couple of weeks. I think that's a 2 permit EP but there are several other ways to get in there. It's a pretty quick paddle from LG to Bald Eagle. Don't use the portage on the map, turn right at the falls and follow the left bank about 150 yards, you'll see it. If all else fails there's a camp on the south end of BE, it's a nice camp but it's pretty buggy so people don't go there often.

Get on the water early! That way you can choose a campsite before others are ready to hunker down. You say 2 or 3 nights, is that on the weekend? May travel during the week will eliminate a lot of competition when it comes to sites. Good luck.

Thanks for the replies! We will likely try to get up on a Thursday or Friday, and then stay all the nights at whatever site we land at.

One thing that’s not very easy to discern from the (awesome) maps on this site is the popularity of any given lake.

Do you have any favorite destinations for a quick trip? We aren’t dead set on little gabbro as our EP yet, not until Wednesday anyhow!

He Gabbros and Bald Eagle are good choices. I think depending on where I'm coming from and time of day I'd arrive, I might consider EP14 and stay on one of the Paint she's or more likely enter Snowbank and stay on Disappointment.

One more thing, if you do go that way, the narrows from LG to Gabbro has a pretty good current. It's nowhere near dangerous, but it'll spin you around if you're not paying attention.