BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
January 07 2025
Entry Point 14 - Little Indian Sioux River North
Little Indian Sioux River (north) entry point allows overnight paddle only. This entry point is supported by La Croix Ranger Station near the city of Ely, MN. The distance from ranger station to entry point is 32 miles. Access is a 40-rod portage heading North from the Echo Trail.
Number of Permits per Day: 6
Elevation: 1364 feet
Latitude: 48.1466
Longitude: -92.2103
Number of Permits per Day: 6
Elevation: 1364 feet
Latitude: 48.1466
Longitude: -92.2103
Oyster Lake-Quality Trip
by BWCA Kid
Trip Report
Entry Date:
May 18, 2007
Entry Point:
Moose/Portage River (north)
Number of Days:
8
Group Size:
4
Trip Introduction:
We had a lot of fun. We had a lot of paddling and alot of hiking, but it was well worth it.
Day 1 of 8
Monday, August 15, 2011. We woke up a little hungover. It quickly disappeared upon gazing at the beautiful sunrise and the anticipation to get to the falls. 
We packed up only the essential gear for a day trip, and headed to the falls. We had to portage to a small lake to get to the Johnson falls portage. The mosquitoes were insane. I had heard stories of the mosquitoes up here, but dealing with them firsthand was ridiculous. Bug spray didn't seem to repel them at all, i actually think they like it. We finally got to the Johnson Falls portage and ditched the canoes off to the side, hoping no one will tamper with them(no one did). I am an avid backpacker who doesn't mind carrying a full pack for miles at a time, but i couldn't fathom the thought of transporting a canoe on this trail. It was long, steep, and rocky, and full of switchbacks. Good thing it was just a day trip. Once we got to the falls, WOW!!! There were the lower falls and the upper falls. Both were incredible! 
After spending a couple of hours at the falls, we decided it was time to head back. It's a good thing we came when we did, because upon our exit, we crossed path's with about 15 people heading to the falls. We had the falls all to ourselves. We finally got back to "the point" and nursed all of our bug bites. Geoffrey had a rather large cut on his back obtained from climbing into the waterfall. Got him cleaned up and set up shop to fish from shore. Didn't catch anything but we didn't really care, we were on vacation. Made dinner, and went to bed.
We packed up only the essential gear for a day trip, and headed to the falls. We had to portage to a small lake to get to the Johnson falls portage. The mosquitoes were insane. I had heard stories of the mosquitoes up here, but dealing with them firsthand was ridiculous. Bug spray didn't seem to repel them at all, i actually think they like it. We finally got to the Johnson Falls portage and ditched the canoes off to the side, hoping no one will tamper with them(no one did). I am an avid backpacker who doesn't mind carrying a full pack for miles at a time, but i couldn't fathom the thought of transporting a canoe on this trail. It was long, steep, and rocky, and full of switchbacks. Good thing it was just a day trip. Once we got to the falls, WOW!!! There were the lower falls and the upper falls. Both were incredible! After spending a couple of hours at the falls, we decided it was time to head back. It's a good thing we came when we did, because upon our exit, we crossed path's with about 15 people heading to the falls. We had the falls all to ourselves. We finally got back to "the point" and nursed all of our bug bites. Geoffrey had a rather large cut on his back obtained from climbing into the waterfall. Got him cleaned up and set up shop to fish from shore. Didn't catch anything but we didn't really care, we were on vacation. Made dinner, and went to bed.
Day 2 of 8
Saturday, May 19, 2007-We woke up at around 6:00 that morning, had a good breakfast which included pancakes and grilled sausage. This was our first day of fishing on Oyster Lake. We floated around Oyster Lake fishing and we had a great time catching a variety of different sizes and fish. We caught pike and smallmouth. We caught several good smallys and many average sized pike. The fish tearing up a black spinner bait and dark colored sinko. We kept several good eating smallmouth and one pike. We had a very good dinner with Mac & Cheese and Garlic Fry Bread. We went to bed around 9:15 and was up for a little bit listening to the loons and looking through by bird book. 
Day 4 of 8
Sunday, May 20, 2007-We once again woke up early this morning. It was spitting snow for about 1 and a 1/2 hours. That was my first ever BWCA snow. I enjoyed a nice warm cup of hot chocolate and a delicious breakfast. Today we planned on going to Rocky lake (north of Oyster) to fish smallmouth bass. We took the 65 rd. portage to Rocky Lake and began fishing. We were not very surprised with the fishing on Rocky Lake after all the good things we had heard about it. We managed to catch only 6 fish on Rocky Lake. We took a lunch break and stopped on the shore and had a snack. We also went for a little hike where we found a little beaver pond, a dead cow moose skeleton, and a huge pile of bear stuff. We later went back out and fished for 2 more hours without catching a thing. WE headed back to Oyster Lake and caught a couple more fish for dinner. My dad caught a huge smallmouth-about 5 and a 1/2 lb. We went to camp and had dinner and went to bed for the night. 
Day 6 of 8
Monday, May 21, 2007-We woke up this morning to a solid steady rain. I had a cup of hot chocolate and a good breakfast. This morning we had planned on going to Lake Gebeonequet (Ge-be-one-quet.) We were not sure if we wanted to make the 3 lake trip there because of the weather. We decided to go and try for walleye. We got out there and caught nothing but a couple of small bass, we kept one and moved on. We decided to go warm up on one of the islands. (It was no more than 40 dg. and raining.) WE get back out there and still have no luck. We fished for about 1 more our and decided to go eat lunch. There was not really any cover so we went back into the woods and got under a giant tree. We lunch and went back out. WE ended up catching 4 more good eating smallmouth and my grandpa caught a 19", 23", and a 25" walleye. We skinned out those fish and headed back for camp. it was a long rainy way back. We got to camp and relaxed for a little bit. WE soon started up dinner, and as you can imagine we, had a walleye and bass feast. We later had desert and soon went to bed. 
Day 7 of 8
Tuesday, May 22, 2007-We woke up early and and had a breakfast of oatmeal headed towards Green Lake. AS you may now Green Lake is full of pike. My grandpa and I caught 6 pike while my dad and other friend didn't catch a thing. We took a break and had lunch and decided that it wasn't worth fishing this lake anymore. We went back to Oyster lake and fished it. We did very good on it catching many more bass and keeping 5 more for dinner. We ate dinner and we decided to go try for lake trout. (Up to this point the lake had been very windy.) We got out there and never caught a thing. The Lake trout just were not biting. We came back in, had desert and soon went to bed. 
Day 8 of 8
Wednesday, May 23, 2007-We woke up this morning and this was our last day on Oyster Lake. We fished the whole north side of the lake and a little bit of the west side. We caught so many fish. Both canoes KEPT both of the limits and released many more. This is one of out best days of fishing in the BWCA '07. We headed back out and caught many more nice smallmouth and pike. We came back in and had dinner around 6:00 and fished some more. After than we came in and had desert. We went to bed soon after and listened to the loons. I once again read my bird book and fell asleep to the sound of the loons.
Day 9 of 8
Thursday, May 24, 2007-We woke up at around 5:00 this morning and started to pack up camp. We left a day early so we wouldn't have such a long trip out. We were hoping to be able to take Oyster River out so we could avoid the long portage into Agnes. Thankfully from all the rain we had gotten the River was up a little bit and we were able to take the that to Nina Moose River. We took the River down into the lake and set up camp. We later on went down Portage River into a little pool and started walleye fishing. We caught 5 good eating walleye and headed out. This looked like a very good River for pike. So we threw on a white fluke and we absolutely tore up the pike. We were getting a bite every cast. Sometimes they would hit the fluke so unexpectedly and so fast we wouldn't have time to set the hook. We had a great time. We also so a little chipmunk hanging around camp. It was a lot of fun to watch. WE later on had dinner and went to bed early getting ready for out big day out. 
Day 10 of 8
Friday, May 25, 2007-We woke up very early and started to pack up once again. We were leaving our site and headed to Nina Moose River on our way out by 8:00. It was a long and windy paddle throught Nina Moose River. We finally made it to the 1/2 mile (160 rd) portage and knew we were almost there. There many people coming in as we were going out. We finally got back to the car, loaded everything up, went to the outfitters, changed, and went to eat lunch at the Ely Steakhouse. When we were done there, we went back through Lake Superior. Our trip to the BWCA was very fun and very successful. 