BWCA Ogish Trip Boundary Waters Trip Planning Forum
Chat Rooms (0 Chatting)  |  Search  |   Login/Join
* For the benefit of the community, commercial posting is not allowed.
Boundary Waters Quetico Forum
   Trip Planning Forum
      Ogish Trip     
 Forum Sponsor

Author

Text

Odie
Guest Paddler
  
08/13/2018 06:27PM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
I planning at a trip to Ogish in September. Ogish is a new lake for my group so I’m looking for some information regarding the Ham Lake fire and it’s impact on good campsites. It is my understanding that the lower end of Ogish was not affected but fire did hit the upper end. Assuming that is true I would be interested to know where the burnt out area begins and ends.

In looking at the map there is a narrows that divides Ogish into the upper and lower parts of the lake. There are three campsites on two points located in the narrows. My question is- Are these campsites located in the burnt out area? If so are they nice enough to camp on?

Thank you.
 
Reply    Reply with Quote    Print Top Bottom Previous Next
08/13/2018 08:19PM  
Just got back from the Ogish area about two weeks ago.

We stayed at campsite #792, the northernmost campsite on the lake, about 1/4 to 1/2 mile north of the narrows. If you look at the satellite view on Google maps, this site looks like it's in the burn area. But, if you zoom in, you'll see there's about 100 feet of trees all around the campsite that was missed by the fire, the site itself was unaffected by the fire.

We stayed there two nights and you'd never know there was a previous burn, there were plenty of hammock trees, nice tent pads, and the site is sprawling. It can easily accommodate 3-4 tents, and has a couple of decent spots to fish from shore.

If you get a chance to grab this site I'd do it, we'd stay there again in a minute. And you're only a 5-10 minute paddle to the narrows.
scotttimm
distinguished member(647)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
08/13/2018 09:53PM  
Last year we stayed on island site 785, and I could have stayed on that island all summer. Plus, it's a short paddle to where the water comes out of Mueller into Ogish, and that's a great spot to snag some walleye. Had a magical morning there last year with my son tossing Rappalas into the water from the rock ledge to the left of the river mouth. You'll see it. Other guys were there the day before killing it with leeches. The portage into and across Mueller, followed by the next portage where you can find the kekebek trail...hike to the east (left) to a beautiful bridge across the river. There we had a close encounter with a grouse (trying to lead us away from her nest) and found bounties of pink ladyslippers and blueberries, and moose poop. Great day trip. Enjoy, it's a great one for a group to basecamp. I will say, it's easy to miss entrances coming into/out of Seagull - our last day the water was so calm the water mirror effect was totally disorienting. And it took our slow-moving group the full day to get there from Seagull, WITH a tow lol. But we are slow.
08/14/2018 02:41PM  
Ogish is one of those lake that I constantly go back to. One of my favorite "hub" lakes to visit. The south western side of the lake, south of the narrows, did not get hit by fire. You are correct on that.

The south western side of the lake is great and none of the sites on that side were burnt. All 3 of the island sites are nice with the 2 near the Annie Lake portage being largish and flat, but lack a lot of trees for hanging a tarp. The site on the peninsula just south of the narrows is a nice site but rather rocky with an annoying boat loading area on a slanted rock. The island site closest to the narrows is my favorite, but it only holds 2 to 3 tents.

If you base in that area beside to day-trip over to Agamock Lake to check out the Agamock bridge. Going the other direction over to Eddy Lake is very nice too. As is checking out the Keke ponds on the way to Kekekabic Lake.
 
Reply    Reply with Quote    Print Top Bottom Previous Next