BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
February 16 2026
Entry Point 77 - South Hegman Lake
Number of Permits per Day: 1.5 (varies by day)
Elevation: 1282 feet
Latitude: 48.0336
Longitude: -91.9250
South Hegman Lake - 77
Day Trip - XC Skiing South Hegman -> Trease Lake
Entry Date:
February 14, 2026
Entry Point:
South Hegman Lake
Number of Days:
1
Group Size:
2
Entry/Up South Hegman: The portage path onto the lake from the parking lot was very groomed and an easy hike down with our skis on our back. Despite being warm, the snow wasnt an annoying slush at the top and was still pretty package making it easy to get a grip going down the stairs to the actual lake entry. When we got onto the Lake, it was around 44 degrees without a cloud in sight. There were plenty of tracks, both hiking, snowshoes and XC skis heading up to the pictographs.
There were no spots of concerns, outside of what another user noted where there was open water from the flowing creek near the crossing from South -> North Hegman Lake.
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North Hegman Lake: We entered onto North Hegman Lake and continued skiing up toward Pictured Rocks. There were a couple sets of distinct paths, one which was quite patted down from hikers, and another set towards the middle of the lake from other XC skiers. We opted to stay in the XC ski tracks and has no issues keeping a good glide. The snow let us move with relative ease for the most part.
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Pictured Rocks: Absolutely beautiful to see this up close. Crazy to just think about how this has stood the test of time, and my fiance and I were trying to decipher what it meant. We looked it up online, but could not figure out the role of the non-moose animal. Omitted the actual pictograph because its worthy of being seen in person and my camera can't do it justice.
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Trease Lake: There werent any other paths going up to Trease so we thought we would continue onward to explore around. We made it to the middle of making our own trail through the snow before we decided this was an adequate place to sit down in the snow and enjoy a castle danger. It is here where I realized how unbreathable snow pants are, but felt amazing to just plop down into the snow.
[paragraph break] Journey Back: We skied back the way we came, the only exception is we tried to explore around some of the outter edges of North and South Hegman lake since the overall journey wasnt too long being on skis. We saw a canvas tent in one of the South Hegman campsites, and it may have convinced my fiance to try our hand at winter camping next winter after our wedding when we come back.
This was our first experience skiing on the lakes proper (traditionally we have stayed on the Kawishiwi Triangle trails as our usual lodge is off Farm lake so we can easily connect up to them). We must have passed at least 5 or 6 other groups on the way up, and everyone was enjoying this beautiful (non-typical) winter weather.