Hello all! First post to the forum :)

So myself, 3 of my gal friends, and our big dog are planning a trip into the boundary waters in early September for 5 nights, 6 days. We have been to the boundary waters once before and LOVED it. We aren't a huge fan of portages but still want somewhere secluded. We want to be able to get to a nice and secluded base camp on day 1 or day 2 without taking a tow. Maybe even find a couple cool campsites to spend 2 nights each at. Last summer we went in at entry point 55, got a tow through Saganaga Lake and were dropped off where motors aren't allowed. We camped on Ester Lake for a night and at campsite 1996 on Ottertrack Lake for 2 nights. We loved how secluded and elevated the site on Ottertrack was! We didn't paddle very far but still felt isolated and loved the scenery.

Is it possible to find something like this without a tow? We were looking at starting out of Ely to cut down a bit on the drive time too. Any trip advice would be appreciated! Thanks :)

Ely entry + only a couple easy portages + seclusion is really hard to find but going in September should help. Perhaps a Lake One entry west down the Kawishiwi to the area where it splits into the North and South branches? You'd definitely see people, probably every day, but there are only 3 easy portages plus a quick lift over to get there and the campsites are all pretty nice. If you edge onto the North branch a bit you might avoid some folks that don't want to hit the 220 rod portage that's further along that way.

Fenske through Little Sletten to Sletten might work as well. Two portages, one very short, to a one campsite lake. This isn't in the BWCA though, you'll see people, houses, and boats on Fenske.

JD

I went with a group in June out of entry #32. It's on the South Kawishiwi River. There's one longer portage (1/3 of a mile) from the parking lot to the river, and then only very short portages around rapids after that. We wanted this entry point because members in our group were older and had knee problems so we didn't want to portage much. We base camped for 7 days, and loved it. The river is wide, and feels more like a lake than a river. We'd heard it can be a high traffic area, but even in June, we only a group or 2 a day.

Hmm, this is a tough order to fill. I'm thinking your best bet for finding seclusion without a tow or a lot of portaging is to stay on a one-site lake. For example, Carl or Lux Lake up the Gunflint. Not great sites particuarly, but only 2 portages and you'd have either of those lakes to yourself. Looking for something like that might be the only way to meet these criteria.