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BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog

January 07 2025

Entry Point 38 - Sawbill Lake

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Sawbill Lake entry point allows overnight paddle only. This entry point is supported by Tofte Ranger Station near the city of Tofte, MN. The distance from ranger station to entry point is 25 miles. Access is a boat landing at Sawbill Lake. This area was affected by blowdown in 1999.

Number of Permits per Day: 11
Elevation: 1802 feet
Latitude: 47.8699
Longitude: -90.8858
Sawbill Lake - 38

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Crab Lake

by landoftheskytintedwater

Trip Report

Entry Date: May 25, 2006
Entry Point: Crab Lake and Cummings from Burntside Lake
Number of Days: 4
Group Size: 4

Trip Introduction:

Originally, this trip was supposed to just be me and my friend Drew but after planning the trip two other friends decided to join us. It would be my fifth trip, Drew's second, and the first trip to the Boundary Waters for Jet and Brandon. I picked Crab Lake as our entry point because despite the mile entry portage, it offered a good opportunity to get some seclusion and had some good out and back routes. The plan was to paddle to Cummings Lake on the first day, camp for two nights, then come part of the way back to Crab to camp the third night and head out from there the following day. We left the Twin Cities Wednesday afternoon and got to Ely around 11:30. Playing the poor college student card, we tried to barter with Mr. Patel at the Super 8 over the price of the hotel room because we were only planning on being there for about five hours. Patel didn't appreciate our efforts and we ended up staying at the Lakeland Motel.

Day 2 of 4

Thursday, May 25, 2006

We awoke around five and got our things together before making the first trip out to the Burntside public access to drop off my canoe before heading back to the outfitter to pick up the second. Our second canoe was already waiting for us at the public access so we dropped off all the gear and Drew and I headed back to Voyager North to pick up our permit and some paddles. The weather was low 70s, little wind, and clear skies.

We were on the water by 7am and reached the portage to Crab by 8. We split up the gear and headed up the mile long portage. The trail was rocky for the first 100 rods or so and had a lot of up and downs. We took a break just short of the marsh and where it looked like the new portage connected with the old one. The rest of the portage leveled off a bit and became straighter and less hilly. We took a second break about 50 rods short of the end of the portage and then finished it off after 45-60 minutes of hiking total. It was a rough way to begin a trip but at least the worst was behind us for the day. We then paddled across Crab Lake and took the 20 rod portage to Little Crab. The path was well worn, wide, and very easy. After paddling through Little Crab, we traveled down the Korb River, lifted over the 2 rod portage, and moved onto Korb Lake. We decided to skip the extra paddling across Korb Lake and further down the Korb River to the 30 rod portage and we took the 70 rod instead. The trail was also pretty good other than scat being all over the place. We put into Cummings Lake and headed to one of the two island sites on the eastern portion of the lake. We came the first site and decided to stop there after seeing how nice the site was. The grate area had some nice benches around it, the tent pads were nice and away from the fire grate and we had a nice rock landing. It took us about five hours to get from the public access on Burntside to our campsite on Cummings. A storm briefly rolled through around five in the afternoon and then we grilled up some steaks for our first night. The night ended with some whiskey and a campfire.

Day 4 of 4

Tuesday, July 21, 2009 We awoke to a steady rain. I didn't want to get out of the tent, but needed to assess the damage from the night before. Thankfully, we remembered that we brought a tarp and had put it up, so everything was amazingly dry! My husband didn't want to paddle in the rain, but I figured we brought rain gear for a reason, and there was NO wind (whew) so it was perfect to head out. We had coffee, couldn't manage to choke down breakfast since we aren't breakfast eaters, but had our coffee and enjoyed the scenery. Thankfully bears didn't get in our food, even though we hung it, we didn't do very well since the trees were not very conducive to the perfect situation to hang a bag as heavy as ours. We packed WAY too much food. We were warned at the ranger station that bears have been very active on Polly, so it was a concern. We headed off to our first portage of the day into the Phoebe river. When I planned this trip, I figured the smaller lakes and rivers would be less challenging...I was wrong. Rivers are unpredictable, and I didn't not count on the rocks that show up out of no where. However, seeing all the canoe scrapes on the rocks made me feel a little better that we weren't the first ones to not see them until we were literally on top of them. Even though the lily pads and weeds slow travel down, I became thankful for them since there aren't as many shallow spots where the lily pads are. Rivers are also a little annoying at times when you have many short portages. Sometimes it felt like we just got back in the canoe when it was time for another portage. [paragraph break] We made it to Hazel lake and still had enough energy in us to press on to Phoebe Lake. We tackled the 140 rod portage, which was actually a nice break from the short portages we encountered on the river, only to go back in the river again on the way to Knight lake. We put our canoe in the water after our portage and break, thinking we had clear sailing to Knight Lake. We came around the bend and got beached on rocks! I looked into the water, and for as far as I could see, it was like a rock dam and there was no where to go to get around it. We started to stress a little at this point. My husband was on a mission to NEVER get his feet wet on this trip, meaning I had to wet foot the portage landings and every other time. I was constantly changing between sandals and my hiking boots. Well, this time he had to get out of the boat. We took off our boots, put on our sandals, rolled up our pants, and started to walk the canoe through the rocks. Dane was holding on to the front of the canoe, I was trying to hold on to the back of the canoe, the rocks were sharp, slippery and very difficult to walk on. Dane told me I had to let go of the canoe, at which point I promptly feel forward into the water. So, I grabbed a paddle to help me through the water. His stress was adding to my stress, and I think his stress was all about having to get in the water more then anything. It was a touchy situation, not so much for navigation as it was on the relationship! Once we navigated that stretch and were back in the boat, we had smooth waters into Knight Lake. [paragraph break] We left Knight Lake headed down the river (again) into Phoebe Lake. This was by far the most beautiful stretch of river we had encountered so far.

The water was like glass, and even the dark storm clouds couldn't dampen our spirits with hoW BEAUTIFUL THIS WAS. AND, there were fewer obstacles along the way. We made it into Phoebe Lake just as the weather was starting to get a little darker and rainier. We decided to look for the campsite on the north end of the lake so we would be closer to our portage in the morning and kept our fingers crossed that it wasn't occupied. Well, we managed to paddle right by the site. It was rather hidden up in the trees and was well off the shoreline. We had to break out the GPS to verify where we were in relation to the site. Dane found it and went to scout it while I stayed with the canoe. He came back down the trail and said the views were amazing and it was unoccupied. We just had to figure out how to get the gear and canoe out of the water with all the rocks. Good thing he's an engineer! Seriously though, it wasn't that bad and we were so thankful we found this amazing site for the night.

Our first order of business was to get the tarp up so we could have a fire. The mosquitoes were ferocious! We needed the smoke so we wouldn't pass out from blood loss. No matter how much Jungle Juice you use, there's always a little spot you didn't quite get and they find it. As Dane was going out to look for more firewood, he stumbled across a destroyed portage pack, a Pullman suitcase, and clothes, gear, and empty food packages strewn about down the rocks! We were disgusted...and also very ashamed that we packed WAY too much stuff and couldn't bring it out with us. Thankfully, this site had the most amazingly perfect tree in which to hang out food, so despite seeing the evidence of what a bear is capable of doing, I wasn't worried. I was, however, very sad that someone would just leave this stuff, even the salvageable things such as clothing and gear. We could only speculate that they didn't go looking for it when it showed up missing. We rested, cooked dinner, and enjoyed an evening by the fire and turned in early after our somewhat stressful and adventurous day. We lit the candle lantern in the tent, played a game of "mosquito quest" (i.e. killing all the mosquitoes that snuck into the tent as we hopped in) and played a few hands of cards. The rain picked up its intensity overnight and we were sure we were going to have rough going the next day.

Day 5 of 4

Saturday, May 27, 2006

We had our sights set toward camping on Maxine Lake for our last night but were unable to locate the turnoff on the Korb River to take us over toward Maxine. We then decided to move to Crab Lake and paddle toward the closest campsite to Crab Creek which would be our exit the following day. The first two sites we passed on Crab were full so we were hoping our site would be open. It was but the campsite left a lot to be desired. There were no good tent pads, no good landing, and the entire site was on the side of a hill. One cool thing though was a chair that someone had built with logs and rocks that offered a nice westerly view of Crab Lake.

We rested for the afternoon, then made rice and baked beans for dinner while tuning into the Twins game. After dinner we headed down to the lake to fish a bit and continue listening to the Twins. We caught a couple fish and the group got to enjoy me trying to get a lure out of a branch over water while I was standing in the canoe. Without anymore whiskey to drink, we were forced to eat the rest of the bag of marshmallows and play a game of Uno before bed.

Day 7 of 4

Sunday, May 28, 2006

We got up around 7 and were on the water by 8. No one was excited to take the mile portage back to Burntside so we had decided to try Crab Creek as our exit. I checked with the Forest Station before our trip and was told that water levels were high enough for travel on Crab Creek. I had told our group that I had read on the forum that there were a couple portages along the way but that I didn't know how long or how many over obstacles we would come across. Up until now, everything had gone smoothly, nothing real unexpected, but we were about to get our adventure for the trip on the way out.

Right away, we hit some downed trees that we have to carry around, which was then followed by some more logs that we had to pull the canoe over. Then we had some decent paddling down the creek until we hit about a quarter mile area with five or six liftovers and beaver damns. Meanwhile, we were listening to thunder to our north and south and the clouds seemed to be bearing down on us. We finally got to a portage and it started raining for a bit. We took one trip with the packs down the portage to see how long it was and what was at the other end. Greeting us at the end of the portage was a large muddy area with some fresh bear tracks through it. After trudging through the mud and seeing that the creek did continue, we headed back up the 70-90 rod portage and got the canoes. For the next half mile or so Crab Creek was curve after curve back and forth until we reached a second portage which we decided to single trip. This portage was shorter than the first, 40-60 rods, but the landing was incredibly muddy. Wondering if we would ever come to Burntside, we put back in the water and paddled through some more curves until we started seeing lighting and Drew made us get off the water. We pulled into a muddy area and got out and headed into some trees for about 20 minutes as lightning passed through the area. Back on the water, we came to another liftover but our morale was rising because we were pretty sure we were closing in on Burntside. Then we rounded a corner and the lake was visible past another little liftover. We all cheered but then we realized that there was heavy wind on Burntside. It took us about an hour of intense paddling to get back to the public access and we were exhausted. The creek probably took about 2.5 hours to complete and while now the experience was worth it, if I go back to Crab Lake, I will take the portage every time.

To finish the experience, we headed to the Ely Steakhouse after dropping our canoe back off at VNorth and had some burgers and beer. Overall, the trip was great and we couldn't have gotten much better weather in May. Looking forward to a longer trip in July.