BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
September 16 2024
Entry Point 50 - Cross Bay Lake
Cross Bay Lake entry point allows overnight paddle only. This entry point is supported by Gunflint Ranger Station near the city of Grand Marais, MN. The distance from ranger station to entry point is 45 miles. Access is thru the Cross River with two portages to Ham Lake and a 24-rod portage to Cross Bay Lake. This area was affected by blowdown in 1999.
Number of Permits per Day: 3
Elevation: 1670 feet
Latitude: 48.0760
Longitude: -90.8222
Cross Bay Lake - 50
Number of Permits per Day: 3
Elevation: 1670 feet
Latitude: 48.0760
Longitude: -90.8222
Cross Bay Lake - 50
Frost River
by CanoeingWithKids
Trip Report
Entry Date:
July 21, 2024
Entry Point:
Cross Bay Lake
Exit Point:
Brant Lake (52)
Number of Days:
7
Group Size:
4
Trip Introduction:
We plan at least 1 BWCA trip every year. This year the plan was enter at Cross Bay Lake, travel to Rib/Long Island to camp. Day 2, travel to Frost. Day 3, travel to Boligna. Day 4, travel to Afton. Day 5, travel to Crooked. Day 6, travel to Tuscarora. Day 7, travel to Missing Link or Snipe, depending on if kids wanted to attempt the 430 rod portage. Day 8, paddle out. Turns out, we changed our plans due to site availability and kids moods.
Day 1 of 7
Sunday, July 21, 2024 We drove up Saturday and stayed in the bunkhouse at Rockwood Lodge. We left Tuscarora Sunday morning and paddled to Rib. We considered staying there or heading to Long Island, but the site was taken and the decision was made for us. We made it to Long Island and most sites were empty. We headed for the island site, but it was full of mosquitoes, so we took the one on the east side of the bay. It was a nice site with enough exposure to blow the mosquitoes away. As we were eating dinner, the kids kept asking who was using sunspray because we kept smelling it. Eventually, I told them to check the pack and it turns out Noone clicked the top to lock it closed, and something in the pack pressed the button until the whole bottle was empty. At least it was cloudy. But not for long.
Day 2 of 7
Monday, July 22, 2024 We woke up to off and on light rain. Just enough to make everything wet. We packed up the gear and made our way to Frost. On the portage to Unliad Lake, we could hear moose, but didn't see any. We saw a man on the shore next to Unload Lake who told us we could skip the portage to Frost if we wanted to cross a beaver dam instead. Kids thought that was a better idea, so we did. Turns out they enjoy crossing beaver dams. We made our way across Frost in the rain and set up on the first site on the west side of the lake. It was cloudy the rest of the day, but it stopped raining. There was a red squirrel that was not very scared of us. It kept trying to get in our food bags. My daughter named it Cashew after it ran off with a cashew she dropped while eating trail mix.
Day 3 of 7
Tuesday, July 23, 2024 The kids slept in so we didn't head our until 10:30 with plans to get to Bologna Lake and cut the river section in half. On the portage out of Frost, we met 2 guys doing the same loop, heading for the same campsite. Kids decided we could do 2 days of travel that day and make it to Afton so we could have a rest day. Turns out the 2 guys decided not to stop (which they told us at the next portage). But the kids were already sold on the rest day so we skipped Bologna. We were tired and hungry when we got to Afton, but the 2 guys were in that site, so we moved on to Whipped. In Fente, we saw swans and a beaver. It was about 7:30 by then, we were tired and hungry, and the mosquitoes were out in full force. The site looked rarely used and wasn't very good. But we were tired and grateful it existed. There was a little mouse that was poking around our food. When we got home, my daughter found mouse poop in her food bag, but not inside the liner, so it must have been trying to eat her trail mix while we were sleeping. We ate and went right to bed. We heard moose all night but it was too dark to see.
Day 4 of 7
Wednesday, July 24, 2024 We woke up and decided we did not want to stay on Whipped again. We decided we would go to Little Saganaga. The portage from Mora to Little Sag was really pretty and we stayed a while. Kids played in the water and enjoyed the views. We found a nice island site on Little Sag that was our favorite site of the trip. It was a bright, sunny, hot day and we got sunburnt without our sunspray. We sat in the shade, read books, played cards, and relaxed. We should have stayed another night and had our rest day, but the kids picked a new route that would take us farther, so we decided one night was good.
Day 5 of 7
Thursday, July 25, 2024 We had another bright and sunny day, darkening our sunburns. We traveled through Gabimichigami, which the kids decided was the prettiest lake, on to Peter. We took the peninsula site. There was a moose antler in the site. The kids thought that was cool. There were lots of garter snakes sunning themselves on the rocks, a fat toad, and 2 chipmunks that must be used to being fed because they were pretty brave. We named them Chip and Dale. We saw a group of 3 canoes come by, but we didn't see any other people the whole day. This site was messy. We picked up a forgotten Nalgene bottle, a strap with a clip on the end, rope, and lots of trash.
Day 6 of 7
Friday, July 26, 2024 The day was windy from the start. We planned on going to Gillis to camp. When we got there, all the campsites on the north side were already full and the kids didn't want to fight the wind checking out the south ones, so we decided to go to Bat and find a site there. Unfortunately, they were all full. And one of them contained the 2 guys we followed through the Frost River. They said we must be doing the same route. We didn't want to backtrack, although we probably should have, so we reluctantly made our way to Brandt. The kids were not happy about this and the 16 year old showed his displeasure by carrying 2-3 times as much gear over the portages so he wouldn't have to walk back to get more. At the portage to Flying Lake, we sat and waited for people unloading. There were so many! I counted 9 canoes and my son counted 19 people coming one after another going the opposite way we were going. Several of them told us of a moose on the lake and we were excited to finally see one. But by the time we were able to load up, it had moved on. The kids were disappointed we never got to see a moose. We luckily got the last site on Brandt. It was hot and sunny and the sunburns started to blister.
Day 7 of 7
Saturday, July 27, 2024 We were originally planning on paddling out on Sunday, but the kids decided in the morning that they would rather paddle out than sit in this site another day. So we packed up for the last time and went back to Tuscarora for showers and souvenirs. We learned we prefer the bigger lakes. The kids didn't like the river. And we probably should have gone south in Gillis instead of the small lakes with few campsites heading into the weekend. Can't wait until next year.
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