BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
July 01 2025
Entry Point 16 - Moose/Portage River (North of Echo Trail)
Moose/Portage 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 27 miles. Access is a 160-rod portage heading North from the Echo Trail.
Number of Permits per Day: 5
Elevation: 1348 feet
Latitude: 48.1230
Longitude: -92.0991
A favorite route offering many trip options and memorable things to see including;
World Class fishing for all four BWCA Species
Pictographs
Soaring granite hills and cliffs
Small lakes
Small rivers
Tumbling rapids and waterfalls
Wildlife, including Moose
Vistas from high points across the region if you're willing to climb. Rating Easy to Moderate. Day One. Get to EP16 off of the Echo Trail early. The initial portage is long, but well worn and smooth, sloping gently downgrade to the launch area. Load your canoe and head North. You'll be paddling with the slight current on this narrow winding river. The water is clear and make sure to tell the bowperson to watch for looming rocks!
Number of Permits per Day: 5
Elevation: 1348 feet
Latitude: 48.1230
Longitude: -92.0991
A favorite route offering many trip options and memorable things to see including;
World Class fishing for all four BWCA Species
Pictographs
Soaring granite hills and cliffs
Small lakes
Small rivers
Tumbling rapids and waterfalls
Wildlife, including Moose
Vistas from high points across the region if you're willing to climb. Rating Easy to Moderate. Day One. Get to EP16 off of the Echo Trail early. The initial portage is long, but well worn and smooth, sloping gently downgrade to the launch area. Load your canoe and head North. You'll be paddling with the slight current on this narrow winding river. The water is clear and make sure to tell the bowperson to watch for looming rocks!
Mudro to Crooked via Horse River
by shlemon
Trip Report
Entry Date:
June 02, 2025
Entry Point:
Mudro Lake (restricted--no camping on Horse Lake)
Number of Days:
5
Group Size:
4
Trip Introduction:
Traveled to campsite on Crooked Lake via Mudro, Horse River and Basswood Falls
Put in at Mudro Parking lot 22/23. Water level was very low which made navigating the entry to Mudro Lake tricky
Portaged and paddles to Horse River. Again the water levels on the river were very low. There are 3 portages on the river on the way to Basswood Falls but all of the rapids also needed to be walked past/over. We mistakenly believed we could paddle around Basswood Falls on the Basswood River —this is NOT possible—the rapids to the left of the river are not navigable. So we portaged on the Canadian side of Basswood Falls. So in all there are 8 portages (plus rapids negotiating) from Mudro to crooked lake past Basswood Falls. It took us around 9 hours. We ended up camping off of the Basswood portage on the Canadian side. We didn’t have a permit but it was late and the campsite unoccupied so…. We paddled the next day to an excellent campsite on Crooked Lake about a mile or less past Painted Rock. Perfect campsite. All of the sites at basswood falls were taken by forest service workers fighting the Horse River fire. I’ll note that almost all of the campsites from the Falls to Wednesday Bay were taken by mid afternoon. So get there early!!!
Fishing was a 6 out of ten—meager at best. But the weather was perfect and NO BUGS!!!
It will be a very tiring journey from Mudro to the Basswood area — so have your water sources ready and food/snacks available for energy.
Fun to be able to fish in Canada and MN within minutes of each other.
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discuss this trip report (4 comments) - last post on June 04, 2025