BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
April 26 2024
Entry Point 23 - Mudro Lake
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.
Cummings Lake after reopening
Entry Date:
September 05, 2021
Entry Point:
Crab Lake and Cummings from Burntside Lake
Number of Days:
5
Group Size:
4
We spotted one group on Crab Lake, other than that the place was empty. The paddle across Crab was directly into the wind. When we reached Korb we were protected from wind but then it started to rain, and it rained for about 30 minutes. Eventually the sun came out and it was quite pleasent. [paragraph break]
We decided to paddle the full length of the Korb River and enter Cumming at the far SE end. After a few short portages we reached Cummings and the wind was even worse. Our first campsite choice on the far east end of the lake was taken, but we got the island site 287 and we couldn't have been happier. We unloaded and set up camp and quickly explored the island.
The weather was great so we got our fishing poles out and fished from shore. Immediately caught a handful of nice eater sized smallmouth. We fried up our dinner and slept well.
Coxey Pond is beautiful and has some scenic points. Sorry I didn't take more photos. We brought our poles and immediately caught a number of nice smallies from shore but threw them back hoping for some larger ones. That was our mistake because the fishing shut down soon after. We struggled to catch anything over 10". We decided to hike down to Silaca Lake and try our luck there. We pulled in a few nice eater largemouth and smallmouth there and took them back to Coxey for a shorelunch. We brought our camp stove with and we fried the the fish up at the only campsite on Coxey.
Just about the time we finished the skies turned grey and we quickly packed up. The rain came hard and soon turned to hail. We started our hike back in the rain. Eventually it stopped but it tested our rain gear and boots, and unfortunately some of it didn't pass the test. Back at camp the sun peaked out for a moment. We soaked up the sun while we could because it wasn't long before the storms rolled back in.
And so the rain continued on and off the rest of the night
More rains and even bigger storms were on their way so we got off the lake around 4pm and prepped camp for more rain. We hunkerd down under our trap. It poured hard for a while. We measured about 1" of rain in an hour. Nothing like getting all your gear soaked the night before you are going to pack it away. Seems to be the norm in the Boundary Waters.
After the storms passed the sun broke through for a beautiful sunset. I was quickly reminded how beautiful this place it. We quickly ventured with our canoes out onto a huge granite island to take in the views.
The guide from SOTW picked us up at EP4, they were even about 15 minutes early.
It was another amazing trip, and we can't wait to go back. We always hope to see some wildlife on the trip (moose, bear, wolf, otters, beavers), but that didn't happen this year. And not being able to have a campfire was certainly a downer. We did just fine without one but it certainly changes the mood and feel. So many memories of the BW involve warming yourself while sitting around the fire at night telling stories and cooking food and talking about the day. It was unfortunate but it didn't hamper our ability to make great memories.