Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Less Miles Next Time...... Maybe??
by WaterBadger

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe

Entry Date: 07/30/2022

Entry Point: Snowbank Lake (EP 27)

Exit Point: Moose Lake (EP 25)

Number of Days: 7

Group Size: 6

Trip Introduction:

Intro Well, here we are again. Winter has set in and I am late in getting our August 2022 trip report together and posted. In the calendar sense the trip doesn’t seem that long ago, but it feels like ages ago…… Good thing its almost time to start planning the 2023 trip!! Who am I kidding, already booked! This 2022 trip included what seems to be our standard group size of 6, all family. The experienced grizzled vets being Nate (brother), Zach (brother-in-law) and myself. New to the BWCA are Emily (sister), Sara (sister) and Gerardo (brother-in-law). We decided that we would try the Ely side again since our 2021 trip was smoked out due to the wildfires. We booked our reservations through Latourell’s which is located on Moose Lake and they were great! I would definitely go through them again. The plan was to get a shuttle to Snowbank Lake (Ep 27) and do a loop through Thomas and up to South Arm of Knife and circle back to Moose following the US/Canada border exiting at Latourell’s five days later. WOW, you say…. that’s a lot of miles…. Yes, yes it was.

Discuss Trip: View Discussion Thread (7 messages)

Day 1 of 7

Day 1 - July 30, 2022 – Are We There Yet!

Zach (Indiana), Emily (New York) and myself left the Chicagoland area at 6am so we could pick up Nate in Janesville, WI by 7am.

Part of the Group

Once this was completed its pretty much a straight shot up to Superior, WI where we met up with Sara and Gerardo who were coming from Oshkosh, WI. We met at the Culvers for lunch, which is fast becoming a tradition for our trips to the BWCA. We had our canoe reservations through Latourell’s, however there was no room at the inn due to a blueberry festival in Ely, MN that weekend. So, we found and reserved a campsite at Fenske campground which was pretty nice albeit 40 mins from the outfitter…. it would be an early morning. On the way to Ely we traveled a route that took us through some of the burn area from last year’s fires that shut down the BWCA and canceled our trip. We arrived at Fenske campground about 3pm and set everything up and went back into Ely to explore and have dinner.

Burn area

Boathouse Brewpub & Restaurant

The campsite was a little small but we smashed our tents in the tent area and I hung my hammock off to the side since I don’t need level ground (big plus to hammock camping). No fire that night as we turned in early so we could get an early start tomorrow morning. Anticipation hung thick in the air as we disappeared one by one to our sleeping arraignments.

First Nights Accommodations