Hi Everyone,

My wife and I have never been to the BWCA before, and we're relatively new to canoeing. We've got some time off (we'd have up to 7 days to spend in the Boundary Waters, though we may want to do some car camping as well) in June and I thought we'd drive up and do some BWCA-style canoe camping.

I was hoping to get some advice on some beginner's trips. I'm looking for something really scenic (rocks/pine/boreal forest), quiet (preferably no motorized craft), and remote, and my wife wants something with as few portages as possible (ideally she doesn't want to portage at all-though I told her I can do most of the work!). We're hoping to merge what we each want as much as possible.

Anyone have any good recommendations for us?

I suggest first searching this forum for "first time" - lots of help. Second, to help we really need to know about interests - you did that fine - but also experience. Third, the outfitters are mostly great, to the point that many of us almost trip on each other promoting the one we are loyal to.

You'll get lots of good help here. I'm more a Quetico person or else I would make suggestions but there are many more qualified responders here about the BWCA than I.

I will bet you'll love it and want to come back.

There is a thread somewhere here about folks wanting all the best the BWCA has to offer within a short paddle from the parking lot. Those places are very busy and usually no longer the best of the BWCA. IMHO Ensign is a great example of that. A short portage and you are there, nice lake, great fishing, campsites overused and firewood very hard to find. Other campers will be close by and you will see and hear them. Might as well camp out of your car at a state park with lake.
That is the bad news.
billconner's suggestion to use the site search feature to the left on the Messageboard page is right on target. Enter "first time" and you will find some good input. Reading trip reports can be time consuming, but filled with very useful information about portages, campsites, things to see, etc. The photos are excellent ways to see what it is like.
There is a map planning feature that can give you some help in identifying entry points and what you will initially experience as far as portages to lakes and routes available. And finally, outfitters make a living helping folks like you and me have great trips. Use them if not for full packages for partial outfitting and their knowledge of the area.
Given car camping and a nice trip you might want to consider going up the north shore from Duluth then the Gunflint trail. Lots of nice things to see and campsites along the way and the Eastern end of the BWCA does see less traffic. June is a very busy time.
Welcome to our paradise. And the usual warning...it is habit forming.

Go to Sylvania in the UP of Michigan instead.....good first time canoe trip place. Portages are flat and easy and short, you reserve your campsites in advance, and it's very scenic.

I suggest getting a permit for entry at Sawbill Lake since you want to spend time car camping as well. You’ll need a permit to enter the BWCAW, and once you leave to go back to your vehicle, that permit becomes void. This way if the canoe camping doesn’t work out for you and your wife you can always stay at the campgrounds there, and take day trips into the wilderness area.

quote dogwoodgirl: "Go to Sylvania in the UP of Michigan instead.....good first time canoe trip place. Portages are flat and easy and short, you reserve your campsites in advance, and it's very scenic."

+1

Well I offer Quetico Provincial Park as an option. Enter at Beaverhouse and you can see a lot - falls, pictos, burn areas, and more - and with just one fairly easy portage be on Quetico Lake - which the first time I asked ranger for their favorite quickly named this one. Lots of great camp sites, grand slam fishing reported (not by me), and relatively few people. Downside - you have to cross into Canada, Atikokan is not as charming as Ely or Grand Marais though some like it more, and the permit costs significantly more - but still a bargain from my point of view. Some of these are larger lakes which can be bigger waves but if that bothers you, pull a Cirrus or Sue Falls permit and head there from the access point.

These are all good tips. I'd only add that I think planning with an outfitter like Voyageur or Piragis (or others) can help supply confidence on the first trip. Should result in more immediate enjoyment and less worry. Try clicking through the Outfitters link to the left.

quote inspector13: "
I suggest getting a permit for entry at Sawbill Lake since you want to spend time car camping as well. You’ll need a permit to enter the BWCAW, and once you leave to go back to your vehicle, that permit becomes void. This way if the canoe camping doesn’t work out for you and your wife you can always stay at the campgrounds there, and take day trips into the wilderness area."

I would second a vote for Sawbill. They have a beautiful campground right at the entry to the BWCA, and the folks who run the outfitter are awesome. The portages are quite easy to get one or two lakes into the wilderness, and plenty of campsites. As mentioned, you could head straight back to the campground when/if you get your fill of the wilderness camping. Can take a shower and buy some fresh food at their store, too. Link to Sawbill

Lots of good advice so far. I don't want to sound discouraging, but I don't want you to have unrealistic expectations either. You won't get remote with no portages. You can get away from the crowd a little with some portaging. However, you're used to car camping, I assume, rather than backpacking. If you do some portaging, it's more like backpacking with a canoe than it is car camping with a boat. At least that's what I tell people who are interested in joining me. You'll have to carry all your gear and food, plus the canoe and equipment. Most people double portage - carry half the gear one trip and the other half/canoe on another trip. This means you walk the portage three times. If you had to make another trip, you'd walk it five times. In other words a 1/4 mile portage becomes 3/4 walking or 1 1/4 miles. If all your gear is heavy car camping gear, you'll likely have trouble getting it done in two loads. If you can't get your gear, food, and equipment down to two manageable loads, you don't want to portage too much.

There are some entry lakes that do not require portaging or only very minimal portaging - Sawbill, Kawishiwi, Seagull, Brule, etc. The downside is that some of these lakes are large and can become rough when the wind is up.

I like bhouse's suggestion of going up the North Shore - very scenic - and I like inspector 13's suggestion of Sawbill, which gives you some day trip options when you only carry the canoe and minimal gear. It also offers some other options - a short portage of 13 rods puts you on the Kelso River and up to Kelso Lake, where it may be a little quieter. If the portaging works out OK, you could also take a 105-rod portage to Smoke, a 90-rod portage to Burnt, and a 58-rod portage to Flame which only has one campsite. If no one has it, you'll have the lake to yourself and a more remote feeling. BTW, there are 320 rods in a mile, so the 105-rod portage is about a third of mile - one mile if you walk it three times to double portage.

If you can get the gear to a manageable size for you and you're willing to do a few short easy ones, you may want to consider an East Bearskin entry and going through Alder to Pierz or Crystal. Another option might be a Crocodile entry. East Bearskin is a motorized lake, but two miles of paddling and you're beyond that.

I hope you can work out something that will be suitable for you and your wife.

Scenic. Quiet/Remote. Few portages.
This combination is difficult to find in the BW. Lots easier in Quetico. Beaverhouse, Stanton Bay and French Lake on the north (and to a lesser extent Nym) are your best bets. Lots to do -- car camping, scenic waterfalls, etc. -- outside the park too. --Goose

Charlie,
Anywhere in the BWCA you won't have any problem with seeing the beauty of rocks/pine/boreal forest. Remote is a subjective term. If you are used to car camping in a state park for example, most everywhere in the BWCA will seem remote. Even at busy times on busy routes you might see a few to a dozen canoes a day and that shouldn't ruin the trip. At the best times of the day (early morning and early evening)you probably won't see anyone and you can imagine yourself alone in many spots. Many of the folks on this site are "purists" or "wilderness fanatics" (wonderful folks by the way) who define their trips differently than a lot of people do. I think you should just pick a route that looks like it is doable and go for it. If you love it as much as most of us do, you can get a lot more picky on your next trip.

Having said that I will offer one suggestion: Enter at Clearwater Lake off the Gunflint, using Clearwater Lodge if you want for any outfitting needs (great breakfast too). Take one mildly challenging portage into Caribou Lake and set up camp, kick back and relax. It is a pretty lake, good fishing and offers good daytrip options. Take your lovely wife to see Johnson Falls and take a dip in the swimming hole below the lower falls. Maybe you would even get lucky enough to get the 5 star site on Little Caribou and have your own private lake all to yourselves. It is a somewhat busy area but a great first trip which will show you what the BWCA is about, has great fishing, and one of the most scenic daytrip options there is, in my opinion.

You will have to explain to your wife that portaging is an integral part of the experience and if you approach it right is just a nice walk in the woods. She may curse you a time or two in the middle of it when the trail is rocky and the bugs are biting, but when she is in camp that night, laying on the rocks just after dinner and the lake is like glass, the loons are calling and the sun is lighting up the sky in a celebration of color, she will understand that it is worth it.


Sunrise shots from our Caribou Lake site












The swimming hole at lower Johnson Falls









Hope you have a great trip. E-mail me if you have any questions.

Thanks everyone for your advice! I have a lot to look into--the Quetico, Sylvania Wilderness, and Caribou lake ideas sound like good ones to start with. You are all correct that just about all of my camping has been car camping (usually National Parks/Forests and State Parks out West, where I lived up until a few years ago). Out there when you go for a hike it was easy to feel "lost" and alone out in the wilderness after hiking a while since those forests/parks are quite large and with all the mountains/trees--hard to see signs of civilization. I lived in Chicago the last four years (I'm in Kalamazoo, MI until June) and none of the parks I visited within a few hours of Chicago there offered that sense of peace. Which I guess is often to be expected, but growing up in San Francisco you have all the redwoods on the peninsula and the Santa Cruz Mountains within an hour's drive, and Yosemite (my hopeful final resting place) is only 4 hours away. All places where it's easy to feel alone (well, obviously you need to get out of the Valley in Yosemite).

Fortunately, my wife and I did make it up to the UP and northern Wisconsin did, so I'm excited to be moving to Milwaukee and be another hour or so closer to northern WI, the UP, and Northern Minnesota. I'll be there for three years at least, so I'm hoping to get my wife more interested in Canoe trips--she already likes day trips out on lakes, but I'd like to do more. I guess we'll start slow and with something that'll impress her a lot--Johnson Falls seems like something that she would really enjoy.

Quick follow-up question: How is starting out at Pine Lake and then going to Little Caribou and Caribou Lakes? From looking at the portages, it seems like it might be an easier sell to my wife.

Charlie,

Entering at Pine Lake is entirely possible but...it is a very large lake and runs straight west to east. If you happen to be up against a westerly wind (quite likely) it can be a very difficult if not dangerous paddle. If you get caught on Pine Lake on a windy day your wife will wish she is portaging!! Many of us avoid such large lakes, especially with an orientation such as Pine has, and for first timers I would not recommend it. You would be better off on Caribou or Little Caribou and then moving to the west end of Pine for a night or two when you go see Johnson Falls. At least you wouldn't have the whole lake to traverse. And of course, in potential wind situations, paddle as early as possible - the wind kicks up as the day wears on.

Consider that from the Clearwater entry, over the one portage into Caribou, you can literally be in camp in less than half a day, perhaps as little as 3-4 hours. So there is no need to rush on the portage, as I said it's just a walk in the woods carrying a (hopefully) manageable load. By the way take the first portage into Caribou, not the second, it is much tougher.

If your wife is adamant about no portages you pretty much have to pick a larger entry point lake with campsites on it which is fine, but probably less "remote". Sawbill was mentioned and Clearwater is a good option for that as well. Clearwater is motorized for the first portion of the lake but if you get to the east end it is absolutely gorgeous with towering palisades and some nice campsites. It has good fishing for smallmouth and lake trout but no walleyes. Another good choice might be John Lake #69...that area seems to be a little less travelled and there is a great daytrip down the Royal River right nearby. Really pretty.

Let us know what you decide or if you have more questions.


Here is my trip report from our Caribou Lake trip a couple years ago:



Clearwater/Caribou trip

Sawbill in the BWCA or Sylvania in the UP, are my suggestions also. Very well suited to car camping based canoe exploration of "wilderness tripping". Both are served by outfitters, are non motorized, heavily forested areas. Each offers family camping, day tripping, remote primitive camping, scenery, and fishing.

butthead

PS; Sign up, become a member, Charlie. We can always use another
loon around here. bh

Hog creek into Perent lake. Smooth creek travel and lake thatprovides great solitude despite number of campsites. My wife had a time of her life this past season.

I'd suggest you INSIST on "doing all the work". My wife wouldn't have it and tried to carry the food pack. 30+ pounds. She hated it. I think if I'd have held strong and not let her carry a pack the first time she might go back. Sawbill is a good suggestion. When would you be going? Time of year also effects the number of people you'll see.