Where would you go?

Remember, it's a quick two night trip. :)

When my daughter was 10 we started at Hungry Jack went to Duncan then camped on Rose (US/Canada). She thought the Stairway portage was cool.

+1. Busy area though.

Moose Lake to Prairie Portage area.Camp just east of the no-motor line. Day trip over to view Canada.

Moose River North. Camp 2 nights on Agnes. Day trip to the pictos on LLC.

Monument Portage. It would be a longish 3 days, 2 nights, but s/he can actually see the border markers with US on the one side of the marker and Canada on the other. You could put 1 foot in either country - I'd think a kid would enjoy that. You can't do that in many places in the BWCA.

Back when Grandpa took groups of school kids up there they had a little ritual for "initiation" at that spot. As best as I can remember, the ritual is that you walked around the marker a couple times, leaned over on it, and got spanked once with a paddle. No idea why, just comes to mind thinking about that spot.

If you think you can paddle Saganaga (and you can, with an early morning departure) than this is what I would do:

D1: 81 Landing to SW of American Point. First site SW of the cluster around American Point and the only other campsite before 1st Bay. It's a great site.

D2: Day trip from that campsite: go over and walk Monument Portage, see Ottertrack, maybe paddle a little ways in to see the scenery

D3: Back to 81 Landing

A tow boat to American Point would make this even easier, hypothetically, if that's your bag. In that case you could actually walk Monument on day 1 and take 2 days coming back.

And don't worry about getting lost. Easiest no-stress way to navigate Saganaga, in short, is once you get out of the channel, follow the south shoreline toward Red Rock Bay but then to and cross over to touch on the south ends of Long, Gold, and Englishman Islands, then follow the west shore up to American Point.

When my daughter was about that age we took a trip out of Clearwater. We stayed on Caribou then daytripped to Mountain lake to "see" Canada. She was a hardy 9 year old, though! The portage to caribou is a little tough. Still very doable for a couple day trip.

Not hard to spend two nights in Canada. Tow to PP, camp on Burke, Sunday, or North Bay. Can get jammed by wind but in many trips that way, only once slowed me a little. Of course all the paperwork to cross international border. Less risky, Carp. Easy to get to, not many people, no big water.

Granite River from Gunflint Lake up to Sag Falls...virtually the whole trip Canada is on your right, and the US is on your left. Easily doable with 2 nights/3 days. Portages aren't too bad, fishing is decent.

Maybe get a tow back to an outfitters from Sag Falls, then you'll avoid any big water for the entire trip, which I might suggest with a lesser bow paddler, I've been there, done that.

quote johndku: "Granite River from Gunflint Lake up to Sag Falls...virtually the whole trip Canada is on your right, and the US is on your left. Easily doable with 2 nights/3 days. Portages aren't too bad, fishing is decent.


Maybe get a tow back to an outfitters from Sag Falls, then you'll avoid any big water for the entire trip, which I might suggest with a lesser bow paddler, I've been there, done that. "

This will be two adults and a kid in the middle!

I'd go to Sawbill and either stay at the campground, go to Alton, or head to Burnt . All 3 are easy and a great experience. From Alton you can visit Kelso or just explore the bigger lake. Burnt has Smoke and Flame right there to explore. The Sawbill campground has more comforts and still has access to Alton and the burning lakes for day trips.

2 thoughts .....
Moose lake up to prairie portage.or...
Up to sag. Canoe down seagulls river then the islands out to that big open beautiful body of saganaga. Maybe stop at ranger island and say eh!

I forgot to add the Boarder Route Hiking trail intersects the Stairway portage.It's a cool side thing to do. My daughter and I headed east on the rail. You get some awesome views .

Nola, if you only have 2 nights you could just drive on up to Thunder Bay. your daughter can get first hand experience going through customs, there are nice hikes and other fun stuff to do in Thunder Bay, or just hike and then head back to Grand Marais and the shore. this 2 nights doesn't include your drive time from Madison, i hope?!

quote Mocha: "Nola, if you only have 2 nights you could just drive on up to Thunder Bay. your daughter can get first hand experience going through customs, there are nice hikes and other fun stuff to do in Thunder Bay, or just hike and then head back to Grand Marais and the shore. this 2 nights doesn't include your drive time from Madison, i hope?!"

If you do go this way remember to check out Fort William Historical Park . A fantastic experience for kids and adults!

butthead

I'll also throw in a vote for the Duncan, Rose, Rose Falls, Stairway Portage, Border Route Trail area.

I'm with SaganagaJoe. In this case I probably wouldn't take the gear to Ottertrack, there's only one camp before you get to the far west end, if you don't get that camp and an unfavorable wind comes up, it's gonna take a lot of the fun out of it. There are 2 BW camps and a Q camp just before you get to the Swamp portage. If you take the tow to AP you could be there in 4 hours, set up and then day trip the monuments and maybe some of Ottertrack. I would spend the 2nd night at one of the islands SJ mentioned, get up early and you're off Sag in 2 hours. Just a thought.

quote DeanL: "I'll also throw in a vote for the Duncan, Rose, Rose Falls, Stairway Portage, Border Route Trail area."

Me too. It was 3rd week of June when I stayed at Hungry Jack Lake Campground (#5 or #6) in a travel trailer and did a day trip to Rose Falls/Stairway Portage. Easy peasy. Kid friendly campground--a small 'kids' sand beach behind the lodge with lawn chairs & shallow waters for cooling off tots too. Campground was near full but the portages and paddling was not crowded. Sparse, actually. I was able to look down onto Rose lake and spot some tiny canoes & paddlers making their way eastward. Across the lake-->Canada!

I would recommend 2 trips that are less strenuous for a 9 year old.

1. EP 14. It's an easy day to get through Lower Pauness, then Upper Pauness and into Loon (a boarder lake). The distance to the Canadian boarder is short from this entry point. You encounter 3 portages, but the longest is only 60 rods. You can base camp two nights on Loon and head out on your 3rd day.

2. EP 25. Like the last one, It's a short distance from the EP to the Boarder. I've never done this trip, but it looks like you'd have two options here. You can take four lakes (Moose, Newfound, Sucker and Birch right into Canada). The only portage is a 7 rod into Birch. Looks like you should be able to do this easily in a day. Or if you want to incorporate some portages (albeit long), the tougher option would be to portage from Moose to Wind lake and then portage again into Wind Bay. The distance may be a bit shorter to the boarder, but the portages are both over 150 rods, which will definitely slow up a 9 year old.

PointMe2Polaris

quote PointMe2Polaris: "I would recommend 2 trips that are less strenuous for a 9 year old.


1. EP 14. It's an easy day to get through Lower Pauness, then Upper Pauness and into Loon (a boarder lake). The distance to the Canadian boarder is short from this entry point. You encounter 3 portages, but the longest is only 60 rods. You can base camp two nights on Loon and head out on your 3rd day.

I'll second this suggestion. My daughter's first BWCA trip was when she was 9, and we did EP 14, just a short two-night trip for us as well. This is a good route, as the Lower Pauness is calm and you're likely to spot a lot of wildlife. My daughter loved seeing beaver, all sorts of different birds, deer, etc., and also some really great flora. You can focus on that sort of thing, and not make the days long and challenging.

I've got two easy suggestions for you:

Enter at John lake (EP 70). Camp on that lake, trip down the Royal River to South Fowl lake. You can see Canada there, also if you make your way to the dam you can see the start of the grand portage, and your 9 year old can even throw a rock at Canada.

Enter at Clearwater Lake (EP 62) you can walk the portage to Mountain lake and see Canada, on the way back to Clearwater hop on the Border Route trail and hike a 1/4 mile to the overlook for an even better view of Canada.

My pick would be the Monument Portage route and stay in the last bay of Sag or Swamp Lake or maybe even Zephyr. Easy day trip to Monument Portage to Ottertrack.

And if you're pressed for time, you don't have to go all the way to Thunder Bay on Hwy 61. The Middle Falls PP is just across the border. Nice place!

go to dawson trail, leave your car and have outfitter drop you at stanton bay.

nice short easy portgage to water.
then you drop right into a nice area. lots of islands, head west a bit to the narrows
and then a nice paddle back on the last day. most likely will have wind at your back.

you will not have to worry about getting a campsite either

quote PointMe2Polaris: "I would recommend 2 trips that are less strenuous for a 9 year old.


1. EP 14. It's an easy day to get through Lower Pauness, then Upper Pauness and into Loon (a boarder lake). The distance to the Canadian boarder is short from this entry point. You encounter 3 portages, but the longest is only 60 rods. You can base camp two nights on Loon and head out on your 3rd day.


2. EP 25. Like the last one, It's a short distance from the EP to the Boarder. I've never done this trip, but it looks like you'd have two options here. You can take four lakes (Moose, Newfound, Sucker and Birch right into Canada). The only portage is a 7 rod into Birch. Looks like you should be able to do this easily in a day. Or if you want to incorporate some portages (albeit long), the tougher option would be to portage from Moose to Wind lake and then portage again into Wind Bay. The distance may be a bit shorter to the boarder, but the portages are both over 150 rods, which will definitely slow up a 9 year old.


PointMe2Polaris"

EP 25 can be pretty busy. I took my wife and two young girls for their first time on this one - camping was so full we found no campsite until reaching Knife and by then my family was exhausted and my wife was questioning my vacation planning skills.

as it turns out, the girls had so much fun and liked the hard work they have been back with me every year since. My wife however enjoys her week home alone now.

EP14 would be my choice. We liked it enough we are going back this summer, but spending 8 nights. Loon can have motors, so keep that in mind.

quote nojobro: "Where would you go?

Remember, it's a quick two night trip. :)"

Probably full but if you went in at Mudro, camped at Horse or Fourtown, you can take a day trip to the border and see waterfalls, pictographs and one of the portages would be walking across Canadian land but perfectly legal.

Quicker to day trip to if you can get a #23 Mudro permit as #22 is a restricted and you can camp anywhere except for Horse Lake.

You didn't say when you want to go (or did I miss that?)

If you are around July Fourth, use 14 and stay on Snow Bay and catch Zups pyrotechnics.

If you are not on a tight budget, take Anderson's tow out of Crane Lake. They run the border to La La Croix. The tow ride and rail portages would be something a kid will never forget. Pack all the gear you want. No portages. Stay at Fish Stake Narrows for a couple of days, check out the pictos, and tow ride back out. Can't get much easier than that.

Zups throw one heck of a fourth of July party for kids and adults. Very nice fireworks, and the minnow races are a hoot!!

Here, save yourself the trouble.

Sunrise at the mouth of the Albany River, September 30, 2016.

Another vote for Duncan or John. Both would be great, without the big water paddling that Saganaga might throw at you. Of course, you can take a tow to the point to minimize the risk of a big wind, but that run down towards Swamp and Ottertrack can still get unpleasant if a south or west wind rises up.