Pre Trip: I wanted to go on a BWCA adventure for my 40th birthday with some of my friends, who are not that outdoorsy. I asked my group of friend and only got one taker to go on the adventure with me, my high school buddy Chris. I told the outfitter that I wanted to go somewhere a little remote, wanted a little bit of a challenge, but also wanted good fishing. Canoe Country Outfitters (CCO) suggested Stuart Lake EP19. Once I knew it was just my buddy Chris (a newbie) and I for our trip I started to research lakes near by and saw Lake Sterling and originally thought about doing it for a day trip, when I learned about PMA permits. I told Chris what a PMA was, what it entailed, and that 99% of the people that go to the BWCA never see a lake like this or have been to a PMA, and I was probably crazy for taking a newbie into one. But he was game! I always wanted to take my buddy Chris and his twin brother Brian to BWCA because they were big strong guys, with a lot of machismo, that would be pack mules, strong paddlers, and down for most anything. Brian unfortunately, just had shoulder surgery this year, so it was Chris and I. Granted we were now 41 and 40, we’ll see how much machismo is left.

My 40th birthday was in March (so we weren’t going to be tripping on my birthday). My buddy wanted to get to Canada, hoped to pick some blueberries, and wanted to see the Milky Way. I had a 9 person trip already planned with the family at the end of July/beg Aug, so we settled on Mid Aug, hoping there would still be some blueberries and I was hoping the bugs weren’t going to be too bad for a newbie. We got our permits in Feb and the planning started.

We originally agreed on a 6 day trip, though I told him it was going to be a really aggressive trip for us to do in 6 days. About a week before the trip he let his wife know we might make it out until 7 days, so not to panic if she didn’t hear from us until 7 days out, and we planned to make the trip in 7 days. But I told him I only packed food for a 6 day trip, with one dinner already planning on being a fish dinner. Again Chris was game and said I guess we’ll have to catch more fish. Mind you Chris isn’t really a fisherman either, I had to supply the fishing poles and lures.

We left Friday night from Indianapolis and headed north of Chicago to stay at his brothers house, and planned to hit the road early the next morning. We had about an 8-9hr drive from there, but had to make it up to Ely before 4:30pm when the Ranger station closed to pick up our PMA permit. This was a new endeavor for me as I always picked up my entry permits at CCO who is usually. We made it up to Ely by 2PM, pick up the permits, got leeches, and went to Zupps to pick up some last food items, then on to CCO. We got checked in at CCO, got our bags packed, food in the freezer, and got some last minute trip advice from Brian at CCO. Off to dinner we went at the Boathouse Brew Pub for some hamburgers and beer. We walked around at the shops and picked up a bag of freeze dried green beans from Piragis since we only packed food for 6 days. Then back to CCO bunkhouse to get to bed as we had an early morning planned.

We woke up at 5am and got our food from the CCO kitchen freezer (they gave us a key, since we would be up before they opened, CCO is awesome!). Packed the food pack, grabbed the leeches, and off we went up the echo trail. We unloaded the car, both of us planned to take one last deuce before we hit the trail, just to find out there is no latrine at the EP (this was a first for me). Neither of us had to go that bad, so off we went, hitting the trail at 6:15am We started off with two fully loaded packs, the big pack with all the personal gear and the tent weighed about 50lbs, with a front pack with the fishing gear weighing another 7lb. The food and gear pack weighed in at about 48lbs with an estimated 25lbs of that being food. Chris took the big pack (machismo) and I started out with the canoe knowing I would pass it to him when I got tired. We started out down the 411rd to 433rd portage depending on which map you look at. I did about 100rd passed the canoe to Chris, he did about 100rd and passed it to me, it’s at this point he let me know he has been going to physical therapy for his knee this year (as thoughts going through my head that we should have done this trip in our 20s). We got to what we thought was the end of the portage loaded the canoe and down the creek we went. We soon realized we put in the canoe too early and were supposed to cross that creek on the portage. But figured it was good practice for what we would encounter in Sterling Creek later in the week. I got out to see if we had to portage around a beaver dam and found a couple a raspberries to take back to Chris, so that was a bonus. We pulled over the beaver dam, and it took us about another half an hour to navigate the creek to the point were the portage would have ended. Spoiler Alert: it only took us 4 min to walk that portion of the portage on the way back. So DON’T put in too early even if the creek looks high enough to traverse.

We continued on the Stuart River, figuring out our portaging plan and learning the best ways for us to pull over the beaver dams. There were 4 pull overs and 6 total beaver dams on the Stuart river.

We got to Stuart Lake and to the PMA portage in a little over 4 hrs, single portaging the whole way, I was pretty happy with that considering we had a mishap early. The landing was easy to find and was marked with a rock cairn. We sat down took a break filtered water, ate lunch (summer sausage, cheese, crackers, protein bar, trail mix), and rested about 1hr before tackling our first PMA portage. CCO told us to go ahead and try single portaging it, we should be able to follow the portage path, and to drop the canoe if we get tired or lost it. So that’s what we did. The trail was easy to follow for about the fist 1/3, but then all of a sudden we found ourselves lost in the woods with no trail in sight. It was so overgrown with undergrowth, the trail just disappeared. We dropped the canoe and the packs and went searching for the trail. After some time, about when I thought we were just going to have to bushwack our way all the way through, Chris found the trail. At this point we just took the packs and dropped a pin on the GPS for the canoe and off we went. Until we lost the trail again. Dropped the packs, searched for the trail a bit, couldn’t find so decided to take a break, get the canoe and bring it to the pack, we did and found the path again and continued on our way double portaging still. We got to the end of the portage with the packs, took the saw with us on the way back to clear some down trees to get the canoe through on the way back. And finally made it to Nibbon, 2.5hrs later on the first 213rd PMA portage.

We had a short paddle through Nibbon and was able to pull over a beaver dam and into Bibbon (we were excited not to have to the 8rd portage). At the end of Bibbon, we found the landing with another rock cairn, we decided this time to double portage this one at 171rds. We found both Moose scat and wolf scat on this portage. This portage had some elevation change and a couple of technical climbs with the canoe, but in all this portage trail was much easier to follow, much less undergrowth, more rocky, and being so, more rock cairns on this trail. Of all the PMA portages around Sterling, this was the one that we probably could have single portaged. We had continued to take turns with the canoe on the last portage, but I could tell Chris was getting tired an his knee was hurting, so I took the canoe on the double portage. We had made it to Sterling, and we needed water (Chris only brought a 24oz water bottle, he said we was defiantly getting a liter Nalgene bottle if he went again). I trolled a husky jerk and caught the first fish of the trip, and a first for me in BWCA, a nice sized sucker fish. I picked up one more eater sized walleye on the way to the island site on the north east portion of Sterling at 3:45pm about a 9.5hr day. We were both exhausted and sore. We set up camp, there was a really nice rock fire grate at the campsite, and we loved the mossy west facing tent pad on the top of the rock cliff. There was a second tent pad in the woods closer to the fire grate, that looked okay too if needed for a second tent. We took a swim, and the water felt fantastic on the surface, but really cold if you went vertical with your feet down which surprised me for a small lake like Sterling that was no deeper than 11ft and only 7 to 8ft deep on the north end where we were. We relaxed and fished with a bobber and leech in about 4ft of water off our campsite and Chris caught a nice eater sized walleye. We made a Mountain House Spaghetti dinner and had a Backpackers Pantry Chocolate Cheesecake for dessert. We knew that there was a 0% chance of rain the first night and clear skys so we got to leave the rain fly off the tent, enjoy a beautiful sunset, have a fire, and enjoy the stars…. Kind of. Though it was cool to see the moon rise over the trees (the next night was the full moon), the sky was so bright and we quickly realized it wasn’t going to be good for star gazing and went to sleep.

We woke up, moved a little slow and made my best breakfast yet in the BWCA. I’m usually and oatmeal guy, I like things quick and easy. And with the bigger group we’ll to pancakes a few times with a griddle over the fire. But I had never been able to pack in fresh eggs, I pre-cooked sausage and froze it, and added some pre packaged bacon to a tortilla and had Sausage, Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Burritos!! They were excellent. While I was cooking chris was quickly pulling in the walleye from shore with a bobber and leech. We decided not to keep any fish yet, it was still to early in the day.

We went to explore and fish Sterling Lake. We both needed to poop, so found our spot to dig a hole and have the whole PMA experience. We searched for blueberries but we only found one small blueberry hear and there. We continued to troll most of the lake, picking up few fish hear and there, but not a lot. We went to go check out the 8rd portage we would be tackling tomorrow, it was super easy. I told Chris that it looked like a place for raspberries but we couldn’t find any. I did however find a Moose Antler in the water in between the rocks. We collected some firewood and headed back to camp.

We headed back to camp to make steak for lunch since it was fully thawed. We packed our own little grate for the fire, and Chris processed wood and built a nice divider with the rocks in the fire pit so that we could cook our steaks on the fire. We made some mashed potatoes and had a filling lunch.

After lunch and dishes we went for another swim, to a close by island. We swam back and floated some leeches in the water. Chris’s pole started going crazy and he started to real in a big pike. We saw it thrash, but when he got the fish in, all that was on was a perch! We continued to go fishing for dinner and brought back 4 eater walleyes. We fried them up and added some freeze dried green beans we picked up the night before we left at Piragis. We saved a lunch for the day!

It was getting late in the evening we were getting ready to have a fire and the fish stopped biting. The leach locker was floating and I wanted it to sink into some cooler water overnight so I threw the leech locker back into the water, the rope tied to the tree went taught, and the bottom of the leech locker popped off the threads and went flying into the water with all the leeches!!! I was in aww, Chris said he closed it, I know it was already closed because it was already in the water floating. It was just a freak accident. There went our $33 in leeches for the rest of the week. Chris and I salvaged about 7 or 10 leeches from shore with the fishing net and kept them in the plastic container the leeches came in. He felt really bad, but I told him, these things happened, it’s what it is, I’m not going to let it bother me. We are still going to catch fish, because I aways pack way too many fishing lures (And this time I am glad that I did, although my pound of jigs I had packed are now rendered useless, LOL!), and dang it, I’m a damn good fisherman (at least that’s what I tell myself). I told Chris we should really get one more bag of water to filter, but we were so tired still, he wanted to wait until the morning.

We had another beautiful sunset, the full moon came out, we had a fire, the bugs attacked Chris, and the beavers circled our campsite slapping their tails.

Camp Site Rating (4*) – one really nice tent pad, great views for sunset, nice size fire pit, landing was okay, bear hang tough but managed a decent one, the seating was really close to the fire, not much room for camp chairs, plenty of trees for hammock campers. (This was our favorite site for the trip)

Fish Total – Walleye (9), Pike (4), Perch (1), Sucker (1)

Woke up at 5:30am had a quick breakfast of protein bar and bacon, and broke camp by 6:30am. We set off on Sterling but we needed to get water. Our gravity water filter started to drain really slow after a few days in the shallow lake. So I had to filter water while Chris paddled us out of Sterling. He paddled us almost all the way to the 8rd portage before I was finished filling our two water bottles. Lesson learned, don’t be lazy the night before and go get water!

The 8rd portage we had scoped out the day before was rocky, but easy and quick enough. We got to the 139rd PMA portage unloaded the canoe. We decided we were going to double portage this one after all the adventures we had the first day with the PMA portaging. We quickly found some berries, at first I thought they were raspberries, but quickly realized the ripper ones were darker, it was a blackberry patch! And there were a ton! It was early in the day, but I knew Chris wanted to forage for berries and the blueberries were dried up, so we decided we were going to portage the packs and take some time on the return to pick some berries.

We conducted the first half of the portage following the trail with little issues, we got to a big clearing and followed the creek until it went back in the woods. At this point we got off track and lost the portage, it took us awhile to bushwack through the woods before we found the trail again, and eventually finished the portage. Dropped the packs, and headed back. It was much easier to follow the trail heading back and we thought it will be an easy return, it only took us 16min to walk the portage back, then we stopped for 37min (yes I timed it) and picked two bags full of blackberries. We then picked up the canoe for the return to the end of the portage, we made it a little bit further this time past the clearing before we lost the trail again. Chris was about over it and was just plowing straight through the brush with the canoe. We eventually dropped the canoe, searched and searched for the trail. Eventually finding it. That portage back with the canoe took us 45min!!!

9:30am by the time we reached Sterling Creek. I was concerned that this may be the most difficult part of our trip traversing this creek in Aug. Surprisingly we entered with plenty of water in Sterling Creek. It started out pretty open, and was a fairly easy paddle, though it was winding with tight turns. It started getting very narrow and really tight turns, with lots of beaver dams to pull over. The water was close to 3-4ft deep in most parts of the creek. The last 50yrds or so we very tight, very windy, and we did keep getting stuck in the grassy creek vegetation that was choking out the creek path. Again, you stick a canoe paddle down, it went down almost to the handle. We were able to stand on top of the vegetation and pull the canoe through just like the beaver dams, but I was just waiting for someone to go in chest deep. I had to stand up in the canoe at one point to make sure we were going to right direction, we could see the beartrap river, but had to continue to navigate the creek to get there. Once on the Beartrap river it was pretty easy and straight forward. A few more beaver dams to pull over and some rocks to travers and float the canoe around.

The 10rd portage we double portaged and two man carried the canoe, we double portaged the 17rd and 35rd portages. We got to the 110rd portage and again double portaged it. Chris was out of water again, so I had him get out lunch and filter more water at the end of the portage. I went back for the canoe. This being the last PMA portage, it wasn’t too bad, there were too kind of tricky turns with the canoe, but nothing like we experienced on both sides of Sterling.

We ate lunch (protein bar, beef stick, trail mix, and a 3 musketeer bar) at the rock cliff landing at the end of the portage. We left the portage and on iron lake at 1pm. Paddled Peterson’s Bay and arrived at the southern most campsite (1837) on Iron at 1:30pm. 7hr travel day.

I was excited to see for the first time on this trip, and headed straight to the latrine. We set up camp, managed a great bear hang, and ate some blackberries. There were a few tent pads, one looked to have been underwater, one looked rocky, the other was just fine (but not as nice as our last pad). The campsite was a big and really open campsite with tall pine trees. Would be great for hammock campers. With the wind coming out of the south it was perfect to keep the bugs at bay. The shoreline was really shallow and the landing was great. But the best part about this site was the kitchen and firegrate. It was built up really nice, build up a little off the ground, it had lots of space for camp cooking, and even had a little cubby to keep your firewood out of the rain.

We found some old rope up in a tree, from a failed bear hang. I told Chris why don’t you shimmy up that tree and get it down, after looking at it and telling me how he might be able to get it down, he turned and looked at me and said nope, Chaos would do it, but Chris will not. Chaos was his nickname through our 20s. He was known to do…. Crazy things. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t climb to include apartment balcony’s and such. His wife had a conversation with him before he went on this trip, “Chaos would do this…., but Chris does not do ….”, he has two young kids and is finally putting the Chaos days behind him. Though his wife was a bit concerned with him going on this trip. We continued to work on our bear hang, and had one of the best bear hangs I’ve done in BWCA. It is so much easy hanging a pack of food for 2 people than it is for 9. You can use much smaller branches! The water looked to be down about 4ft from the shoreline rocks, and in the back bay we went for a swim and walked out quite a ways from our campsite. We then proceeded to go fishing, forgot to take the net and it costed us the biggest walleye of the trip that got off at the side of the canoe. We managed to bring back 3 walleye for dinner, we fried them up with some taco rice and tortilla’s and had fish tacos for dinner. It was a late dinner as we were heading back in from fishing as the sun was setting. We cleaned dishes, filtered water, had a fire, and off to bed.

We slept in for us on this trip, like 7:30am. Got moving and made Oatmeal with our fresh Blackberries and a fruit bar. We decided to pack up all the food into the gear pack and take all of our food, cooking, cleaning, and fire equipment with us as we planned to have a day on the lake and eat a shore lunch somewhere.

We started out fishing at the mid lake rock hump on the W side of the lake where we picked up some fish the night before. We picked up one walleye on a jig and a leech and through him back. I didn’t want to drag it all the way across the lake. I had to assure Chris we would be fine and catch plenty of fish to eat. We got a massive tangle, and while I was working it out, Chris once again paddled us half way across iron lake. We began fishing again, and trolled to the other side of the lake toward curtain falls. I picked up a small pike with a giant spoon (2.25oz Canadian Spoon from BPS). I thought it would be fun to fish and try to catch a big pike, but this one wasn’t big, but I didn’t have much confidence in the bait and that was about all the action it saw on this trip.

On our way over, we saw the first people we have seen the entire trip, they were staying the west end island campsite, and just hung their food and looked to be heading to the falls. They must have went on the Crooked for the day, because we made it over to the rapids below curtain falls and didn’t see them again. We paddled into Canada waters (not fishing), so Chris could say he was in Canada. Then fished the current below the falls. Chris quickly caught a walleye, pike, and bass on his “Sprinkles” lure (Bomber deep diver color sprinkles was hot on two BWCA trips for me this year). We measured Chris pike at 22” and I told him that didn’t seem right it looked longer than that. But we wanted to eat a pike on the trip so we put it on the stringer. I told him I brought my son’s little retractable measuring tape from his kids tool kit, made in China and perhaps it was off a bit. (When I got home from the trip I measured the little measuring tape to a real work measuring tape, the 22” fish was really 29”, thankfully just legal).

We caught some more fish, had a couple walleye and a pike on the stringer, then parked the canoe at the portage to see Curtain Falls. I was here in July of 2020 and told Chris it looks like more water going over the falls now then there was that year, and after looking at pictures, there was absolutely more water in late Aug of this year then late July of 2020. We kept our life jackets on (always), snapped a couple pictures, and back down the portage. We were going to fish the current a little more before heading the closest campsite to make a shore lunch. I started throwing a tube bait and really got into the smallmouth in the current. Even was taking one off, threw the tube over the side of the canoe, and caught another while I still had the other bass in my hand. After a short barrage of SMB, we were hungry and headed to clean the fish. We stopped at one of the small islands on the way to clean the fish, and were greeted by a bald eagle, watching from atop a tree. He was giant, I wish I got a picture but as soon as I pulled out the camera he flew away, and relocated to watch us from a distance. We headed over the closest campsite to the falls (1841), in 2020 this site was taken all week assumed it was a really nice site, but it was far from that. The fire great was out on a rock with no shade or cover. Tent pads looked, okay at best. I know this site got a lot of use during the recovery efforts in the spring and maybe that played a part, but I’m glad we didn’t stay here. It was fine for a shore lunch, of fried fish. We cleaned dishes and fished/paddled our way back to the other side of the lake. In 2020 I stayed on the SE campsite in a bay an knew of a rock hump in that area and told Chris we should fish that. First cast with “sprinkles” and he hooked into a large pike. I paddled us over to shore so that we could measure the fish and get a good picture for Chris. I told him that thing was over 30” and was a nice fish. It had some real shoulders on it and put up a good fight for Chris. We got a quick measurement, 26”. I was like no, measure it again. 26”. I don’t believe this measuring tape. Took some pictures and revived the fish and off she went. (After returning home, the 26” pike was actually 34.5”. Don’t trust stuff made in China!).

We paddled back to the campsite picking up a few more fish trolling. Then rested relaxed, made a Mountain House Beef Stew for dinner. Chris had a flint on his knife and though he couldn’t start a fire with it, we let him light the stove with it. Saved a few matches.

After dinner we got a fire ready, but decided to hike to the west end of our island campsite to watch the sunset. We got a really cool view of a family of like 30 birds/ducks, passing through the glare on the lake at sunset, it was pretty cool. The Swans were everywhere so far on this trip, and we listened to the honk and fly around at the campsite while we made a fire. Once the stars came out, we hiked back to our rock on the W end of the island to gaze at some stars, until once again the moon kind of ruined the star gazing. Off to bed with a travel day ahead of us.

Campsite Rating 1837(4*) – awesome fire grate/kitchen, landing was really nice, latrine had a nice view and open/breeze so not too buggy, it was a big open campsite, tall pines, perfect with a S wind. 1 nice tent pad for us, with a few other options, would be a great hammock site. Shallow water/No fishing from shore, but close to good fishing. We got a good bear hang for 2 people but it would be tough to find a good spot for a hang for a large group in the tall pines.

Fish Total – Walleye (7), Pike (8), Bass (12)

Up at 6:30am, broke camp, made oatmeal and bacon for breakfast and on the water by 7:55am. We said we didn’t have to be in a rush today, didn’t have to take things hard, could even double portage if we wanted. We had a short paddle to the first portage 72rd portage and I told Chris I would take the food/gear pack as it was a bit lighter and the canoe all day until the 320rd portage, and it worked out really well for the both of us. The fist 72rd portage had some elevation change to it and was not an easy walk in the park portage, but the trail was clear and made it easy after previous portages. Dark Lake to the 53rd and Rush Lake to 75rd were fine not much to mention. Short paddle on Fox lake and we were at the 320rd portage into Stuart. I started off with the canoe and lighter pack and the trail was really pretty easy. We made it past half way and were in swampy area/little lake when the trail forked. We dropped the canoe, checked the map. I checked the Fishers Map and didn’t see any other trail on it, then I checked my GPS map (Locus Maps, with the BWCA overlays, well worth $3 a month) and saw a hiking trail that forks off the path and heads south. So got out the compass for my first time ever on a BWCA trip and made sure we were heading the right direction. Chris took the canoe for the rest of the portage and we made it to a nice sandy beach entering Stuart Lake. We found a lot of good dry drift wood and Chris started piling it back into the canoe. We were shooting for the campsite on the NE end of the lake (1828). It was open as did appear all the campsites on that end of the lake, we weren’t sure anyone else was even on Stuart Lake.

Chris had hinted to me a few times during our travel that he would be okay heading out on day 6, made a comment also asking me how much I really wanted to see Stuart Lake. I let him know it was the namesake lake, the one I hadn’t been to, and the reason I initially picked the EP, so I really did want to see it. I’m guessing the trip was wearing on him, and I’m sure he really missed his family, and didn’t know how they were doing without him being home.

The wind started to pick up as we got to camp around 10am (easy 2hr travel day). We needed water and Chris wanted more firewood, so we went back to the portage and loaded the canoe up with firewood and grabbed water to filter on the way back. We set up camp, managed another good bear hang right in camp, and ate lunch (beef stick, trail mix, protein bar, milky way). Put on our extra set of clean cloths since we were done portaging until the way out. And Chris started processing wood, lots of wood.

The wind continued to pick up, and we really needed a rest and recovery day so I wasn’t pushing it to go out fishing. Chris to could tell I was itching though. I went and fished off a point from shore down a ways from the campsite, caught a couple small walleye on the tube and a pike on the whopper plopper. We relaxed, had an early fire at 4pm since we had a ton of wood. Ate dinner, Mountain House Power Pack Chicken and Rice with a tortilla. Chris asked if I wanted to go out fishing as he knew I wanted to, though it was still windy. We paddled across the lake at sunset to the peninsula on the other side. Fished between the peninsula and island out of the wind, with little luck. We then went in the wind and casted to shore, just on the point of the peninsula and Chris got a walleye on “sparkles” and I got one on “confused”. It gave us an idea where the fish were at, but we were ready for another fire and time to relax. We stayed up and had a fire and listened to the thunder rolling in the distance. We buttoned up camp, and headed to bed just as the rain began.

We woke up to light rain and laid in the tent for a few min, I was considering do we go out today if it is going to rain the whole day, but didn’t mention to Chris. I decided to go out and get down the food, and decided to throw a few casts from shore, no bites but the fish were jumping. The lake was glass after the windy day before. The rain stopped but it was still dark and overcast. We made oatmeal and bacon for breakfast, and decided to go out fishing. We started to troll to our same spot we fished at yesterday, and Chris caught a nice 19” walleye on sprinkles. He asked if we wanted to keep it to eat. I told him I’d rather put it on a stringer at camp, rather than drag him around all day, so we went back toward camp, put it on a stringer, and headed back out to our fishing spot.

We fished off the peninsula and used the rest of the leeches we had spared to the last day. We kept getting bites but couldn’t land any of the fish. When all the leeches were gone, we switched to jigging raps and caught 6 walleye pretty quickly. We fished for awhile and decided to take 3 walleye (not knowing if a turtle might have got our other walleye) back to camp at about 10am for a fish brunch. We cleaned and cooked the fish, and our fuel container ran out after the frying the first batch of fish. We didn’t want to open our back up fuel canister so we made a fire cooked the rest of the fish, ate, relaxed and did dishes.

We were back on the water before noon, with the intent to fish and explore the rest of the lake. We trolled across the lake and saw one group camping on the West side of the lake close to the Dahlgren River portage (1824). We went and walked to portage to the Dahlgren river, saw the little water fall. All would be cool in the spring but underwhelming in late summer. We did see a pile of USFS fire grates and one set up almost like a grill. Not sure if the USFS left them there or if it was from people vandalizing campsites…. Hoping the first. We ate 2nd lunch while walking back on the portage (beef stick, protein bar, pay day)

We continued our exploration and paddled to the island campsite on the south side of the lake (1825), we got out checked it out it was a decent campsite and considered moving as it was closer to our portage, but decided it wasn’t worth the effort to move. We kept moving picking up a fish here and there. We stopped to fish a spot or two as we saw some fish, and I picked up a few more fish on the jigging rap.

We went to check out the Stuart River portage we had came out of day one, to go see the falls there. It was just a trickle. On the way over we noticed a big rock cliff/clearing looking over the lake. We decided to go for a climb and see if we could get to the top of the overlook. We bushwacked our way to the top, saw some more moose poop, and found a great view overlooking the lake. Took some pictures, and headed back toward camp, fishing our way back picking up one more walleye.

We went back to camp to relax. The sun started to poke through the clouds, the rocks were drying up, and it was turning into a really nice day. To the point we were able to enjoy the sunshine from camp shirtless.

We ate dinner (tuna packet, crackers, fig bar, trail mix) with no dishes after doing fish for brunch!! Then decided to head out one last time to go fishing as the sun was starting to set on our last night. I picked up 4 more walleye on the jigging rap, and Chris was getting a bit frustrated as he hadn’t caught any fish since early morning. But I had to remind him he caught the biggest walleye on this lake today/ biggest walleye for the trip/ and the biggest pike of the trip…. I think that helped. He kept telling me, fishing really is a lot of fun when you actually catch fish, lol!

We headed back to camp, packed up, had a big fire, I ate the BP Crème Brule for dessert, Chris saved his Payday. We got one last clear night to see the stars. The landing where the canoe was, was a great place to lay down and see the stars, and we got to faintly see the milky way (but noted if I ever get Chris to go to BWCA again, I have to take him during a New Moon!).

Campsite Rating 1828 (3.5*) – The site had a good landing to pull multiple the canoes up on, but would likely be underwater earlier in the year. The fire grate was nice, but the seating and positioning of the fire grate was weird. It was angled oddly. The view from the fire seating wasn’t the best their were some trees blocking the view of the lake. I liked the 1 tent pad we had, others looked to have also camped on the flat rock face by the canoe landing, second tent pad not the greatest. The bear hang was another good one for the two of us with little food left, but the branch we used might not have held a larger food pack. The trails from camp lead to the next peninsula point that we fished at and cleaned fished at. Someone looks to have camped here in the past, there was a small fire ring and rocks like they had camped there (it is on an old map as an old campsite, but maybe it’s used by hikers, as the hiking trail goes close by this point/campsite I’d give this site 1.5*). We didn’t go up onto the campsite on the point across from us (1823 NW on the north bay), but I’m not sure if any of the other sites on this lake are much better than this one.

Fish Total – Walleye (18), Pike (2)

We woke up at 5:30am, motivated to move quickly and get out quickly so we could make it all the way home that night. We packed up camp as quick as we could. Had bacon and a cliff bar for breakfast, chugged some water, and used our last liquid IV packet. I usually fish my way out on the last day, but we only had Stuart to fish and I knew Chris really wanted to move and get out, so I packed up all my fishing stuff so that we could move as quick as possible. The water was glass once again this morning, and we were on the water and paddling at 6:34am as we started paddling. I knew we were going to move, but Chris set the pace from the front of the canoe at an insane pace. I said to him, I guess this is the only lake we get to paddle today, the rest is winding through the river, so lets go I’m game. And we sprinted!! We reached the portage for the Stuart River at 6:47am!! I had to map it on paddleplanner.com when I got home to find it was 1.2 miles from our campsite to the portage, and paddling that distance in 15min would have been 7 MPH!!!!

Before we left Brian from CCO told us that he can do EP19 to Stuart lake in 3hrs, “but you guys aren’t going to do that”, and he guessed 4hrs for us at best. It took us a little over 4hrs to do the Stuart River on the way in with a little mishap, so we were thinking with a little lighter packs, knowing where the portages are, and a little more experienced on the portages and beaver dams that we were shooting for 3.5hrs, with the 3hr goal still in my sites.

We had a plan, I was going to take the lighter pack and the canoe, and Chris was going to take the heavier pack and front pack. Until I needed a switch.

We moved much more efficiently through the portages on the way back. We had 4 pull overs and had a system down at this point going over the beaver dams. We were still paddling pretty hard (not as hard as on Stuart), but really moving at a fine pace. Paddling was easy, navigating was easy, portaging felt easy, and keeping straight in the Stuart River was easy after our adventure in the PMA and Sterling Creek.

We moved fast through the river and got to the entrance of the 411rd portage (the landing we missed on the way out). It only took us 4min to portage the section of the trail that we took at least 30mins navigating around in the creek. I told Chris I’d go until my shoulders needed a break, and took the canoe nearly half way. I switched with Chris, but he didn’t want to switch packs, I told him I just needed a little break. It was a tough portage to end on your way out. It’s not the hardest portage but it is long and it is uphill on the way out. Chirs took the canoe maybe 75rd past the halfway point. I switched him back, I could tell he was really struggling after carrying the heavy pack and canoe. I told him we were almost there almost done, and we were on pace to do it in 3hrs. I was on a mission, and started moving. As I neared the EP we saw another group coming in, starting their adventure. I made it to the parking lot, dropped the canoe and let out a big “let’s go!”. I’m sure the guys loading their canoes thought I was an idiot, but I didn’t care. I looked at my watch and waited for Chris to make it to the parking lot. He crossed at exactly 9:34am!! We made it from our campsite to the EP in exactly 3hrs. Stuart to the EP in 2hr and 47min!!

We loaded the canoe, made it back to CCO at 10:40am for what is always the best shower ever!! Paid, bought a new leech locker, and headed to the Boathouse Brewpub for a beer and a burger.

It was a hell of an adventure! One that maybe would have been easier on our bodies in our 20s, but it was the best 40th birthday trip I could ask for, and I wouldn’t have wanted to do it with anyone other than Chris. Though at times he made comments that he didn’t know enough outdoors stuff, know how to tie knots, clean fish, etc…… he was the best tripping partner that I could ask for. I knew he would be a portage mule (even with his knees), but he was also a hell of a powerful paddler, he was always willing to help however he could around camp, the dude was a machine processing firewood, and he never complained. It was good vibes all the time and made for a memorable trip.

Idk, if Chris will ever make another BWCA trip with me, but whenever he is ready, I will be ready to go again.