BWCA Agnes to Kawnipi Boundary Waters Quetico Forum
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Voyageur67
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03/12/2018 04:30PM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
We will be heading to Kawnipi (McKenzie Bay) via Agnes in early June. I noticed that there appears to be three access routes into Kawnipi from Agnes: 1. Via Keewatin Lake. 2. Via Murdoch Lake. 3. Via Bird and Anubis Lakes.

Our time is somewhat limited so we would like to get to Kawnipi as quickly as possible.

Which of these three routes is the preferred way to enter into Kawnipi?

Thank you
 
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old_salt
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03/12/2018 06:46PM  
If your time is short, you may want to change your entry to Cache bay. Agnes is not the quickest way, and winds could alter your progress. Agnes is very susceptible to wind.

That said, I would pick Murdoch, if you want to go through Agnes.
Eyedocron
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03/12/2018 07:47PM  
My crews have done all three multiple times, and time wise each one will be about a half day. All are nice passages. Depends on your goal after Kawnipi. Going west towards Chatterton and Russell, take the west. Going north into MacKenzie/Ferguson, or towards the Waiwag River, take the middle. Going east into the Falls chain, take the east.
A very nice loop is to go Prairie Portage/ Agnes/Falls Chain/ Man Chain/Carp and back. A nice advantage of this is that if you get to Prairie Portage and a large wind is on Bayley Bay, Just do the loop counter clockwise instead of clockwise.
03/12/2018 08:14PM  
I've only gone in through Keewatin so I have limited experience on this. I agree with the wind-issue for Agnes. It could be hit or miss with weather, however the pictos on Keewatin are worth the effort.
cburton103
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03/14/2018 07:46PM  
I've only done the route through Murdoch, but I would happily do it again. None of the portages were too bad (although there were some downed trees when we went through). The fishing on Murdoch was great as well. So if bass/walleye/pike fishing is of interest to you, that might push you the Murdoch direction. Both the flows going into and out of Murdoch held fish for us. Most shorelines on the east side of the lake (didn't try the west side) also produced fish.
carmike
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03/14/2018 10:14PM  
If I remember correctly, Murdoch Lake (really just a bay of Kawnipi) meets the main body of water very near the entry to McKenzie Bay. It might be the most direct if speed is most important.

Of course, then you'd be zipping through some very good fishing water indeed. I have been up there many times, and in my experience, Keewatin is the poorest fishing of the three options. Not sure if that's common, but it's been so for me. Just my .02.
03/15/2018 06:29AM  
If you are into pictos there is a nice one under a rock overhang on the west side of one of the lakes on the western route. I think it is Keewatin, but it has been a long time.
03/15/2018 08:02AM  
Voyageur67,

I have been on about every route you can go with to get to McKenzie Bay Kawnipi Lake.

Old Salt is spot on with going in via tow to Hook Island and going in Cache Bay Entry and going thru the Falls Chain as the shortest and quickest way to get to McKenzie Bay.

I estimate:

Prairie Portage-Agnes-Bird-Anubis-McKenzie Bay/ Kawnipi
34.6 total miles
28.3 paddle miles
6.3 portage miles
13 hr. 46 min. Total Time

Prairie Portage-Agnes-Murdock-McKenzie Bay/ Kawnipi
30.5 total miles
24.5 paddle miles
6.0 portage miles
12 hr. 16 min Total Time

Hook Island tow-Cache Bay-Falls Chain-McKenzie Bay/ Kawnipi
28.0 total miles
23.0 paddle miles
5.0 portage miles
11 hr. 39 min. Total Time

All the above routes usually means reaching McKenzie Bay in 1 1/2 days with double portaging.

I have flown into Clay Lake 3 times from Moose Lake and gone into Kawnipi via the Waiwag. That was back when airplane fuel was quite a bit cheaper and flight costs were reasonable for a group of 4. We reached McKenzie Bay once in one full day of paddling but that was when there was only one portage. There used to be 4 log jams and that increased portage time quite a bit, so we would normally camp on Kawa Bay on night one and reach McKenzie Bay late morning on Day 2. I believe there is only 1 portage now as log jams have been blown out.

Have fun
Voyageur67
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03/15/2018 10:58AM  
Great help. For personal reasons (memories, etc) we are heading up to the north end of Agnes to reach Kawnipi otherwise we would take the Falls Chain-knowing that it is the quickest route into Kawnipi.

We will likely now go through the middle or Murdoch Lake route into McKenzie Bay.

Thanks again for your help!
MarshallPrime
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04/13/2018 12:52PM  
We will be going to Kawnipi around that same time.
What are your dates?

We will be entering Cache bay on Sun June 10th, get to Kawnipi Mon afternoon and not sure where we are heading to camp. 2 nights on McKenzie Bay and 2 on Kawa I assume. We will have 2 canoes, 4 men. Feel free to stop by and say hi. I assume we will be reeling in a walleye...or if that gets slow, wait, who am I kidding, we will be catching a walleye.
Have a great trip. Hopefully the ice is gone by then. ;)

Voyageur67
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04/13/2018 03:39PM  
MarshallPrime: "We will be going to Kawnipi around that same time.
What are your dates?


We will be entering Cache bay on Sun June 10th, get to Kawnipi Mon afternoon and not sure where we are heading to camp. 2 nights on McKenzie Bay and 2 on Kawa I assume. We will have 2 canoes, 4 men. Feel free to stop by and say hi. I assume we will be reeling in a walleye...or if that gets slow, wait, who am I kidding, we will be catching a walleye.
Have a great trip. Hopefully the ice is gone by then. ;)

Hello, Nice to hear that you will be heading up to Kawnipi during the same time as us. We have planned this trip for over a year will be heading up to McKenzie Bay with my sons one of whom is a Green Berets and has just returned from a mid-east deployment. We were originally planning on departing the week before however my Army son will be in training until the 8th of June. Therefore had to readjust our timeline. There will be a total of seven of us with three canoes arriving from Montana and Wyoming. We will likely arrive in McKenzie Bay on Tuesday afternoon via the Agnes Lake route on June 12th. Our goal is to camp at site #1RA in McKenzie Bay using this as our base camp for several days then head back to Prairie Portage by the 17th. I hope to see you there and we can swap some fishing stories! My best Tom.
"
dentondoc
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04/13/2018 06:46PM  
I've done all 3 of your routes (and the Falls Chain route as well ... even done the Poets Chain approach from the west).

Base on your choices, if it were my trip, I'd select the route that puts me nearest where I want to be when I reach Kawnipi. None of the routes are particularly challenging. However, if you take the Murdock route, pack up your rods before you start. If you drop a line in Murdock, chances are you won't reach Kawnipi that same day.

dd
 
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