What was your first of the season trip like? Any difference with the late spring?

I can't wait for my scheduled June 5th EP# 62.

Share your observations.

Happy open water season to all.

Yeah......I was going to ask the same question. My trip is sneaking up fast also (June 3.....LIS). Going to Milwaukee tomorrow to meet Lilcowdoc and do the trip food shopping. She did the menu and has the list. Been busy at work and turkey hunting (we went 3 for 3!) And I haven't got any gear out yet. I only have 2 days off over next 2 weeks so it's going to be a mad scramble to get ready. Woot woot!

Take your time fishing walleyes in
Little Shell lake. Deep jigging was awesome.
26 inch female early spring some time ago.

Mine was awesome! Went in off of the Gunflint Trail May 13-16. No ice or snow. Temps in the 60 -70s during the day and 40s overnight. Spent a lot of time watching a mama moose and her 2 calves. Saw my 1st bear. Hung out with some noisey loons. Crossed paths with a wolf or a really healthy looking coyote. Felt very fortunate to have the whole place to myself :)

How were the water levels? Low, average, high?

QueticoMike: "How were the water levels? Low, average, high?"

Pretty average where I was. There was more water running between Vista and Horseshoe than I have seen in the past. Portages were very dry.

I paddled out of Knife this morning. I started last Monday on Moose in a t-shirt just 7 days after the ice broke up; things are warming fast. Knife was 48° Saturday. All the undercover brush and low plants are just popping green - big changes in just the last 4-5 days. Saw one black fly on Friday evening, about a dozen Saturday, and got swarmed on the leeward side of an island Sunday - so they are kicking in. Mosquitos too.

Just got home from a beautiful trip up the Gunflint. Entered at EP50 and did the Frost River loop. I spoke to a couple of rangers on my way in and they were curious about the Frost River, as they said they had never seen water levels this low so early in Spring. The Frost River proved to have plenty of water to navigate, but I wouldn't want to go through there with much less flowage.
I experienced temps anywhere from the 20's to the 70's, had hard rain and beautiful sunshine, along with wind from all different directions. The mosquitos were trying to become abundant, but the cool (frost on my gear cool) temps at night were impeding their progress. I did not feel sorry for them.

One more thing: I ran into a group of three guys coming into Long Island from the South and they said they had to modify their trip since the western half of Brule was still covered with thick hard ice. I gathered that they had been through that way sometime between May 15 and 17. They were going back to Brule via the Winchell way since the eastern half of the lake is ice-free.
Weird year.

Thanks guys for the information and sharing your trip facts with us.
BWCA never dissapoints.

Paddled around ice flows on Seagull on the 13th, but otherwise everything was mostly normal including the somewhat large number of people. We were likely the first group to portage from Seagull into Alpine but later we ran into people on Jasper coming from Gabi. Saw people on Eddy and Kek on the 14th and plenty of people on SAK/Knife and Ottertrack later. Sag was super cold when we paddled across it on the 18th. Fishing was slow I guess, but we had some good luck. I saw one tick and a handful of skeeters. Weather was too sunny. The loons hadn't quite found their rhythm, but plenty of them out there. Lovely place, that BWCA.

Did a quick solo last weekend and came home on Monday the 21st. Vegetation etc. seemed about at the same place as it was last year during Memorial Day weekend. Loons were cranking it up, water levels appeared low for this time of year (not positive as it was my 1st trip to this area). It's dry up there. It rained a good chunk of the day Saturday and on Sunday everything was crispy dry already. Fishing was slow but I saw zero people which was awesome. I entered at Homer and camped on Pipe and Vern.

Didn't paddle, but I just got back from a long weekend of trail clearing on the Pow Wow Trail. The bugs were hardly noticeable, which was good. Water was pretty high. The dry areas were very dry but the wet areas were very wet, which was a little puzzling - it wasn't overall drier or wetter than normal. Daytime highs were quite warm, but we got a hard frost one night. It was a good trip!

Went up through Snowbank to Thomas last week. Just finished my trip report!

http://bwca.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=trip.report_view&sel_trp_id=5111

nicek: "What was your first of the season trip like? Any difference with the late spring?

I can't wait for my scheduled June 5th EP# 62.

Share your observations.

Happy open water season to all."

Looking forward to hearing how your trip went. I have permit for same entry point next week.

OCDave: "

nicek: "What was your first of the season trip like? Any difference with the late spring?


I can't wait for my scheduled June 5th EP# 62.


Share your observations.


Happy open water season to all."

Looking forward to hearing how your trip went. I have permit for same entry point next week."

same here at the end of June

I'll get in trouble if I admit I was there. But oh so nice...

Count me in.

SWEET!