Boundary Waters Trip Reports, Blog, BWCA, BWCAW, Quetico Park

BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog

June 30 2025

Entry Point 23 - Mudro Lake

Mudro Lake entry point allows overnight paddle only. This entry point is supported by Kawishiwi Ranger Station near the city of Ely, MN. The distance from ranger station to entry point is 19 miles. Three accesses into Mudro Lake involve portages ranging from 20–185 rods.Easiest access is from private la nd with parking fee.

Number of Permits per Day: 5
Elevation: 1166 feet
Latitude: 48.0356
Longitude: -91.8301
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.

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.

Report


 


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