BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
July 26 2024
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.
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.
Broken in the Wilderness
by drmau1
Trip Report
Entry Date:
June 22, 2017
Entry Point:
Kawishiwi Lake
Number of Days:
9
Group Size:
3
Trip Introduction:
It was a beautiful day to be on the water. Ben and I in a one canoe and Nate in his one man. Came up from Kawishiwi heading to Little Sag. Came to a backed up portage at one point, may have been near Malberg, when Nate decided to wade in to get to shore. One foot stuck in the mud, he came down hard on on his paddle with his knee......snap!
Report
** Day 7 **[paragraph break] Maybe around 4, the canoe alarm found its way BACK to our camp – IN our camp – not 10 FEET from our tent. It was loud, obnoxious, and had to go! I didn’t even bother to put on any clothes or shoes, nor think about the snake or whatever else was there – I unzipped the tent and was out in a flash - grabbing whatever rocks or gravel were just outside - and threw them in the direction of that silly bird – letting him know in a hurry to SCRAM. He did, and I felt like a champion, until he started right up again, in a tree just a tad downshore. Ugh![paragraph break] We snoozed on and off as he came and went, and finally stirred out of the tent around 7:30-8:00. At extreme leisure, we began to break camp, eating a bit of breakfast and enjoying coffee and cocoa as we worked. We noticed that Matthew’s pole down by the canoe appeared to have fallen. It was bowed over like the tip had stuck into something. He went to check it out and almost immediately called for me to hurry down there.[paragraph break] The pole was laying over against the rocks, with the tip almost to the breaking point, the very end bent right into a hole in the exposed roots of a tree there. Matthew picked up the pole, both of us figuring it had fallen and by the most extreme coincidence had landed just perfectly, and gotten stuck in the hole. As he started to pull it out, it was obvious something had a hold of it. “Something has the worm in its mouth…I think it’s a snake!”[paragraph break] Not being too anxious, and with steady pressure, he finally got the culprit to appear. It was a snake, and sure enough, it had that lure securely in its mouth. Needless to say, neither of us volunteered to reach out and touch someone. After several minutes of resistance, the snake finally allowed Matthew to pull it out of the hole. It was a good three feet in length, and as it cleared the hole, another snake’s head poked out, as if to see what was going on. No telling how many more were down inside that mass of tree roots in the rocks.[paragraph break] Matthew did the best he could to get the snake off the hook without injuring it, but there was just no way around it. I told him if he had cut the line, it would have just ended up swallowing it and died anyways. As soon as it realized it was “off the hook”, it zipped back into that hole like white lightning, but not without bowing up like it wanted to strike first…prompting us to step well back.[paragraph break] We weren’t sure how to properly record that first-time catch…but it will definitely have an asterisk next to it. Later we asked our outfitter what kind of snake it was, and he said it was probably just a common race, and harmless. Matthew and I laughed, remembering how we BOTH had jumped when IT did! All we could figure was that in foraging around in the night, saw or smelled that artificial worm, somehow got a hold of it suspended up in the air, and then dragged it back down into its hole.[paragraph break] We finished breaking camp, being especially careful down around those rocks, and packed everything up, killing time as best we could – watching several groups come in from the Mudro entry, most of them heading past us towards Sandpit.[paragraph break] One single canoe seemed surely bound for Fourtown, but then began to veer towards our camp. We didn’t think anything of it – maybe they just wanted to check the FT portage, and were headed for Sandpit. I was digging in my pack when Matthew said “They’re gonna ram us”, and laughed. I looked up, and sure enough, they were about 40 feet from shore now and headed directly towards us. As they reached the shore, we could tell the guy in the back was trying to figure out how to stop or turn the canoe, and the woman in front seemed clueless as to what was even going on at all. Bam! They ran right into the rocks on the shore beside some trees.[paragraph break] I thought this was probably the first time for either of them in a canoe before, and as much as I wanted to holler down “Can we help you?”, the look of embarrassment on the man’s face told me to just leave it alone. They finally pushed back enough to clear the rocks on shore and began to zig-zag their way along our camp shore, and towards Sandpit. After they disappeared, Matthew said, “They are gonna have a LONG week”. I replied, “Maybe not – if they stay on shore.”[paragraph break] We loaded up, and pushed off about 10 towards the entry point. A loon flew over just as we paddled off from camp and gave us a friendly “goodbye” call. It was a bittersweet reminder that this year’s adventure was nearly over for us.[paragraph break] Even though we took our time crossing Mudro, and going through the crooked creek section out towards the Pickett portage, we found ourselves there in no time.[paragraph break] We drifted up to find 4 canoes, all sitting side by side, being loaded simultaneously by a group of men, taking up the entire put-in, in absolutely no hurry to do anything. They were looking at their maps, discussing how to load, where they were going, etc…even saw us sitting there, but made no effort to clear a spot.[paragraph break] As we sat there, hoping no one ELSE came down the trail behind them, or came up behind US, we contemplated paddling UP the stream towards Pickett, the same way we floated down 6 days ago. But, we could already tell the water was a bit lower, and paddling upstream in that moving water wouldn’t be as easy as the other. Plus, we had our poles out and still together, and didn’t want to risk catching any of the low-hanging branches. So, being in no rush since we were running very early today, we just waited patiently until they were satisfied to have talked everything through while standing there, and paddled in as they finally clambered in, and pushed out.[paragraph break] The trail up to the lot was a very easy 30, and we stashed our gear on the Picket side of the road, then set up our chairs there in the shade. We took a brief moment for prayer and offered our gratitude for the week.[paragraph break] We fished a bit there on the end of Pickett, Matthew more than me. He even caught one more nice Northern just above the drain, over in some reeds. As he reeled it in and pulled it out of the water, a young boy whose group was unloading on the other side of the drain watched him with big wide eyes, and a smile. I figured he was hoping for that kind of luck soon.[paragraph break] Because we started the day on Mudro, and not Fourtown or TCM, we got to the EP much sooner than we had planned and had to wait a bit for our outfitter. It was no big deal. He turned out being earlier than we had discussed at drop-off anyways. The waiting gave us time to reflect on the week together, and for Matthew to help me with any details I might have forgotten for my journal. We read through it and tried to fill in any details that we didn't want to forget.[paragraph break] We loaded our gear into the Suburban, hopped in onto those glorious cushioned seats, and gladly took the cold soft-drinks he had brought for us. *** Mudro Lake, Picket Lake *** 
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