BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
October 13 2024
Entry Point 45 - Morgan Lake
Number of Permits per Day: 1
Elevation: 1845 feet
Latitude: 48.0008
Longitude: -90.4098
Morgan Lake - 45
Lizz to Long Island
Entry Date:
July 24, 2006
Entry Point:
Lizz and Swamp Lakes
Number of Days:
5
Group Size:
2
Poplar Lake, Lizz Lake, Caribou Lake, Horseshoe Lake
Put in at poplar after driving straight through the night. I splashed some cool lake water in my face as we leave from the public landing on the north west tip of a skinny bay. The first portage is always great; It's a reminder that I can still lift a canoe and carry it around like that is normal. Had a great day. The ground is still wet from the storm that poured all the way up the north shore of superior. We meet some rangers that inform us the seagull fire is still going strong. Spent the night on horseshoe at a nice campsite and caught a small mouth bass on a leech.
Horseshoe Lake, Gaskin Lake, Henson Lake, Omega Lake
Woke up and got going. I got my crankbait snagged up a couple of times in the shallow rocks of horseshoe lake. Henson is very pretty. People were catching lots of Smallmouth. Omega has a couple of beautiful campsites. The first one on the north east side is the best.
Portage from Kiskadinna to Muskeg was very vertical. Thankfully we were going downhill. Long Island lake is gorgeous. We caught a couple of Northern pike in the bay with the Banadad creek inflow. Stayed at a gorgeous site near the portage from Muskeg. Nice spot to hang hammocks on a cliff. I would really like to get one.
Longest day of the trip, and the most satisfying. We saw a fawn swimming across Long Island lake at six in the morning. Lots of long portages. We had a cooler day (in the low 80's) so everything was quite pleasant. This week was a hot one. Alicia was so sunburned that the cool waters of these lakes were very soothing.
We turned our six day trip into a five day one. And pressed on all the way out. We were both getting anxious to return to comfort and home cooked meals. The portage to poplar lake is very long, but not very difficult. I was supervised I did the 320 rod portage with only one stop for rest. The public landing came into view and we just sat in the car and listened to the radio for 20 minutes. Those seats are so comfortable after a week in the wilderness. The radio was great too, since the only music we heard all week was an obnoxiously loud/feminine boy singing Kelly Clarkson's "Walk Away" that we had passed on Gaskin (day 2). We also sang a couple of songs ourselves, like Jesus loves me and old camp songs. That is how we met, oh yeah and Keith Urban made his was in as we paddled. We had a great trip and I look forward to doing this again next year. I think we'll head west to Ely next time, hopefully less people. The fire up by seagull was crazy. WE never actually saw smoke, but the stream of helicopters was relentless.