BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
September 18 2025
Entry Point 26 - Wood Lake
Number of Permits per Day: 2
Elevation: 1361 feet
Latitude: 47.9691
Longitude: -91.6001
On the Water- Monday July 20th-
On the water late considering how far we need to go today. Up the Horse river to the falls by 6pm. Started raining and NO campsites available. Mudrow-Alruss-Tin can Mike-Horse Lake-Horse River-Basswood. 13 miles by water. (not counting portages)
Tuesday July 21st-
Rain all night, all morning and all day. Went north by petroglyphs, table rock and the the Crocked Lake Narrows across Thursday bay to campsite. Basswood-Crooked Lake-Wednesday Bay-Thursday Bay. 11 miles in the rain.
Wednesday July 22nd-
Up early and calm winds to take advantage of, considering the big water we have to cross. Found beaver dam to lift over and did a portage from hell between Pandos lake and Chippewa Lake. VERY steep and slippery after rain. Many mud holes. Then the mile portage after Wagosh Lake to Gun Lake. Never saw another soul in a canoe or campsite the entire day! Thursday bay-Friday Bay-Pandos Lake-Chippewa Lake-Wagosh lake-Gun Lake. 11 miles by water.
Thursday July 23rd-
Finally had a dry night. got everything dry!!! A few portages today to Fourtown Lake campsite. Easy day by comparison. Gun Lake-Fairy Lake-Boot Lake-Fourtown Lake. 6 miles. Put the long miles at the first of the week for a buffer for contingencies!
Friday July 24th-
Last day. Stormed last night bad. A few portages today with one bad one between Fourtown Lake and Mudrow lake. To entry point by 1pm. Ready for a hot shower! 4 miles
Total-
45 miles by water
13 miles by portage (3 trips each)
58 miles total.
Wind, Waves, and Fishing
Entry Date:
August 23, 2008
Entry Point:
Hog Creek
Number of Days:
3
Group Size:
4
We arrived in the parking lot for Hog Creek about 9:00 a.m. and unloaded all of our gear. This was our first trip into EP 36 and the stairs down to the river were a welcomed surprise. With everything loaded in the canoes we were ready to go. There was a group in front of us and we waited around for about 15 minutes to let them get ahead to avoid any congestion. After paddling for 10 minutes we caught up to them and they were portaging around a small set of rapids. Being the young, and smart people that we are we decided to try and push through. There was what appeared to be a short patch of rocks and rough water....until we got passed the first set and realized the creek hooked hard to the right and there was another 100 yards of the same rough terrain that we had just been through.....We decided to portage. After learning a bit of a lesson the rest of the paddle on Hog Creek went rather smoothly.
We broke out into Perent Lake after about 2 and a half hours of paddling and found ourselves in some pretty big waves. Our map gave us a rough idea of where mostof the campsites on the lake were so after seeing that all of the visible sights from the entrance were full we decided to head north, hugging the shore. After what seemed like hours of paddling on the lake in giant waves we were able to find a site. I understood quickly why it was open. The wind was blasting the campsite, but for now it was a welcomed relief. We found a few places to hide the tents behind some trees and set up camp. Excited to get our lines wet we headed out shortly thereafter to find out what the fishing situation would be like.
My two buddies had brought along a portable fish finder and were headed for deeper water. I however was with my girlfriend and she had very little interest in paddling and was all about the fishing. I told them that since I was paddling solo that I was going to head for an island where we could get away from the breeze a little. We brought 10 nice size eaters back, they brought 1. We were never more than a couple hundred yards from camp and it was an amazing experience.
After having fresh walleye for dinner, it was a relatively short evening with a little fire side relaxing and a couple of barley pops we were headed to bed.
This morning we awoke to more wind and waves. We held off on fishing until the early afternoon and what do you know, my buddies decided to follow us today. The lake was beginning to clear of its campers and traffic was rather limited today. We did very well with the fish all the up until dark when we had to head back to camp. The "state birds" came out in full force at dusk and I learned my lesson from the first night, I was wearing pants and a long sleeve tee tonight and they didn't have as much luck on this night.
I usually take minnows with me to the boundary waters, but due to our lack of research on the area we were headed, when we got to Tofte we realized that the only bait shop around was the Holiday station in town. So, night crawlers it was. I have to admit that I was a little nervous going in with only one selection for bait, but I found out that there was no need to be because those fish would have hit anything we threw at em'! It was a catch and release day today because we would be enjoying brats and potato chips for dinner. We sat out this evening and listened to a Twins game by the fire and enjoyed a few more beers and called it a night.
We woke up early to break camp this morning and found the weather to favorable for our paddle home. There was a nice and gentle breeze blowing at our backs with an overcast sky so the sun was beating down on us.
During the paddle on the creek we made pretty good time so we stopped for a quick swim on the way out. There is apparently a pretty deep hole out in front of the short portage! The water was cool and the trip was great!
I realize that this report is a little old, but I reserved a permit for Hog Creek again back in January and just revisited my photos from this trip and it got me excited to get back out there!
