Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Wind base camp
by GMECSWAN

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 07/21/2024
Entry & Exit Point: Moose Lake (EP 25)
Number of Days: 4
Group Size: 2
Trip Introduction:
Moose entry to Wind and base Camping.
Report
While vacationing in Florida in February I shared some of my love of going on trips into the BWCA. My friend was interested so we grabbed a permit before we headed home. We did some long distance planning as we live 5 hours apart. Our outfitter got us all set and had a bunkhouse room for us. We went through our gear and paired down duplicates and non essentials. After dinner at the Boathouse we hit the sack. We drove ourselves to entry point 25 and unloaded everything at the beginning of the short path to Moose Lake. The paddle over to the entry point was easy and very beautiful. The portage heads up right away and my newbie friend wanted to carry the canoe. We did not take time to adjust the shoulder pads and it was a mistake, poor Ken just could not get the canoe comfortable. We made it in 2 trips and started our paddle over to the far south west campsite. We picked it from the map as it is away from through traffic and Moose Lake motor boat noise. It was not in use when we paddled up to it for our 3 nights on Wind Lake. We landed parallel to the long rock slope and landed easily and just slid the canoe up off the water for unloading. It was evident that the camp had not been used for awhile, I am guessing at least a month maybe more. The path, once we found it, to the latrine was over grown and loaded with mosquitoes. The last campers did not leave a supply of fire wood for the first fire, a kindness we have received every other trip and left every time for the next camper. The site had 3-4 very small tent spots, but we had one 4 person tent and struggled to find a large level spot. The spot we selected was right on the edge of a rock. We were only able to get 2 stakes in the tent base. We use the abundance of rocks to secure the base and rain fly. The location on fire grate offered great views of the lake and a really nice breeze. We fished that south west bay and caught an estimated 30 pike and 20 small mouth. We had planned to go over to the islands and jig for walleye but we were having too much fun throwing wopper ploppers and getting top water action. We did not see another person until the end of our third day. We did not have any black flies but plenty of mosquitoes. Only one real sunny day and that was our worst fishing day and the best fishing day was the worst weather. Great trip!