Like the title says, how busy is Poplar as an entry lake. I'm looking at going to Gaskin this year and am just checking to see how likely I am to run into other groups. I like a little solitude so I haven't used the Lizz/Swamp EP yet am expecting a bit more of a crowd, but not sure just how busy it will be in late June.

Watching this, also. For our third eastern BWCAW trip after years of tripping almost exclusively out of Ely, I had sort of settled on a Lizz entry, also for late June. Planning to head south as far as we felt like and base camping a few nights. Now, I'm hoping that I didn't stumble into the Gunflint version of Lake One.

The Lizz entry is a popular one, for good reason. Pretty lakes with good fishing and good moose sighting potential. For sure you would want to have a plan A, Plan B and maybe even C just in case but early start and early camp will give you decent odds.

The Lake One entry allows 7 permits per day, Lizz Lake 4. The busiest lakes will be Caribou, Horseshoe and Gaskin and between the 3 of them there are 26 campsites. Some of them are situated to allow for relative seclusion, some not.

Venturing in a different direction might also improve your chances, to Vista Lake or west through the long narrow lakes, some of which only have one campsite. Meeds Lake is also generally a quieter option. If solitude is your number one reason for the trip this may not be your best choice but I don't think it's any worse than several other entry points and likely much less crowded than Lake One. Lots of options if Plan A is a wash.

Many years ago, like 30, I took my older brother up to the BWCA. I had long been talking about the beauty and...the solitude. As we were leaving our Lake Two campsite one morning we looked around and counted 17 canoes in plain sight. I don't think you would ever run into anything like that from the Lizz Lake entry.

I've entered there 3 times. Twice, no problem. 3rd time, we sat behind 3 groups at the Lizz to Caribou portage. Plus, there were 3 groups coming out of Caribou. We sat on Lizz for 25 minutes waiting for our turn. But, we passed people on Caribou and Horseshoe and had our pick of good campsites on Gaskin.

What date are you looking at? I have entered on a Saturday or Sunday in September the past two years.

2017: Poplar - no occupied campsites. Horseshoe - 1 occupied campsite. Gaskin - 2 occupied campsites.

2018: Poplar - 1 occupied campsite. Horseshoe - 4 occupied campsites. Gaskin - 3 occupied campsites.

There are many lakes accessible from EP #47 (the easiest portages of the three EP's on Poplar Lake). There are also dozens of campsites you can get to within 4 - 5 hours from EP #47.

We ran into one party on every portage coming out as we were going in both years. I don't think we ran across anybody entering either year as we were leaving.

We did this EP in late June last year. We entered mid week, Wednesday iirc, and saw two parties headed out on the Lizz-Caribou portage but we just passed on the trail with no delays. We had our pick of campsites on Gaskin about 12-1 pm that first day. By Saturday all the highly rated sites on Gaskin were taken but not every site. We saw 3-6 canoes each day—some fishing near by and some just passing through to other lakes or camp sites on Gaskin. On a day trip through Winchell-Omega-Henson Friday early afternoon not a single site was occupied on Winchell or Henson and we didn’t pass any site on Omega but we only saw one guy on a solo trip with his dog the whole loop until we got back to Gaskin. When we left late Saturday afternoon there were several open sites on Caribou and Horseshoe. And the weather and bugs were near perfect...warm, zero rain, gentle breezes with a few mosquitoes at dusk but nothing a little permethrin and bug dope couldn’t make manageable.

I would call it “moderately” busy. Complete solitude will be unlikely but nothing like the Lake One/Two/Three traffic.

In comparison I did a late September trip to Lake Three on a rainy, cold weekend two years ago and when we pulled our canoe out at the Lake 2-Lake 1 portage on Sunday morning there were 3-4 canoes queued up behind us and several more approaching fast. Haven’t seen anything like it any where else in the BW so far.

Wow, I've never had to wait at a portage before. I've run into people coming the opposite direction, but that was never anything more than a step off the trail to let them by.

What do you do when you are double portaging? Or if they are double portaging? Do you just unload your gear after they leave with their first load, or do you wait until they come back and grab the rest of their gear? Probably not a big deal to wait for one group but 3-4 groups double portaging on any portage longer than 100 rods could take hours.

A1t2o: "Wow, I've never had to wait at a portage before. I've run into people coming the opposite direction, but that was never anything more than a step off the trail to let them by.


What do you do when you are double portaging? Or if they are double portaging? Do you just unload your gear after they leave with their first load, or do you wait until they come back and grab the rest of their gear? Probably not a big deal to wait for one group but 3-4 groups double portaging on any portage longer than 100 rods could take hours."

It would depend on how many in each group. Three or four groups of two and you are ok to all be moving at the same time. The magic number, of course, is nine people (or 4 canoes). We had to practice our patience last summer as we encountered at least two Outward Bound groups of 9 going in our direction. We were moving from Malberg onto the Lady Lakes chain. We knew there was 9 in the party and had to wait on the water for them to clear at least one end of the portage. They were kind enough to sort of pull over and wait for us to clear the next portage before they unloaded behind us.

Double portaging and meeting other groups works fine if everyone has their act together. You bring your load to the next lake, set everything off to one side or the other, not both sides, and not in the middle. You make sure that the first canoe across and its corresponding load and its corresponding crew get there in a timely fashion so that it can shove off as others in your party do likewise with the next canoes and loads. No need for the group that you meet to wait until your last canoe has shoved off as they do the same in the opposite direction. Groups traveling the same direction as you will want to get going also and I can't imagine them waiting until we are completely off of the portage to start unloading. Again, it all works if everyone picks a side of the trail to keep their gear together and away from the other groups. Three groups? Both meeting a group and traveling the same way as another? Well, that means somebody waits, for sure. Although some nit-pickers will say that this violates the 9-4 rule, this is more a 'whadda ya gonna do?' situation.

We entered through Meeds over the Labor Day weekend because it was the only permit left in the area on short notice. Other than a little traffic on Poplar itself, we didn't see anyone on Meeds or for the next few lakes. We came back through Lizz and it was definitely more crowded.

Probably be pretty busy has been my experience.

Late June might be okay... Hard to say.

Do NOT go Labor Day weekend. It was like a zoo. We might as well went to William O'Brien State Park! (This was 2016 and we stayed on Horseshoe)

We heard of people not finding campsites after circling nearby lakes for HOURS and sleeping on portages before just calling it and packing out!

I think end of June you'll be more-or-less-fine (campsite wise anyways) ... any way you could go earlier in June or even May?

Holiday weekends... NOPE. Hard Pass for this area.

schweady: "Watching this, also. For our third eastern BWCAW trip after years of tripping almost exclusively out of Ely, I had sort of settled on a Lizz entry, also for late June. Planning to head south as far as we felt like and base camping a few nights. Now, I'm hoping that I didn't stumble into the Gunflint version of Lake One.
"

Head to Vista - the southernmost e site. It was surprisingly NOT taken, and I would rate it 5 stars. we had lunch there and were tempted to move. It was a beauty!

MN_Lindsey: "Late June might be okay... Hard to say.

Do NOT go Labor Day weekend. It was like a zoo. We might as well went to William O'Brien State Park! (This was 2016 and we stayed on Horseshoe)


We heard of people not finding campsites after circling nearby lakes for HOURS and sleeping on portages before just calling it and packing out!


I think end of June you'll be more-or-less-fine (campsite wise anyways) ... any way you could go earlier in June or even May?
... NOPE. Hard Pass for this area.

"

I was planning on a solo from #47 right after Labor Day weekend. I've never been on the east side before. Do you think the crowds will have thinned by, say, Wednesday after Labor Day? Thanks!

Dave

RetiredDave: "

MN_Lindsey: "Late June might be okay... Hard to say.


Do NOT go Labor Day weekend. It was like a zoo. We might as well went to William O'Brien State Park! (This was 2016 and we stayed on Horseshoe)



We heard of people not finding campsites after circling nearby lakes for HOURS and sleeping on portages before just calling it and packing out!



I think end of June you'll be more-or-less-fine (campsite wise anyways) ... any way you could go earlier in June or even May?
... NOPE. Hard Pass for this area.


"

I was planning on a solo from #47 right after Labor Day weekend. I've never been on the east side before. Do you think the crowds will have thinned by, say, Wednesday after Labor Day? Thanks!


Dave


"

We left on Sunday (day before Labor Day) so - hard to say. I'll let someone else chime in.

RetiredDave: "

MN_Lindsey: "Late June might be okay... Hard to say.


Do NOT go Labor Day weekend. It was like a zoo. We might as well went to William O'Brien State Park! (This was 2016 and we stayed on Horseshoe)



We heard of people not finding campsites after circling nearby lakes for HOURS and sleeping on portages before just calling it and packing out!



I think end of June you'll be more-or-less-fine (campsite wise anyways) ... any way you could go earlier in June or even May?
... NOPE. Hard Pass for this area.


"

I was planning on a solo from #47 right after Labor Day weekend. I've never been on the east side before. Do you think the crowds will have thinned by, say, Wednesday after Labor Day? Thanks!
E

Dave

Yes .....most are just there for "one last weekend". It should be quiet the rest of the week.


"

RetiredDave: "

MN_Lindsey: "Late June might be okay... Hard to say.


Do NOT go Labor Day weekend. It was like a zoo. We might as well went to William O'Brien State Park! (This was 2016 and we stayed on Horseshoe)



We heard of people not finding campsites after circling nearby lakes for HOURS and sleeping on portages before just calling it and packing out!



I think end of June you'll be more-or-less-fine (campsite wise anyways) ... any way you could go earlier in June or even May?
... NOPE. Hard Pass for this area.


"

I was planning on a solo from #47 right after Labor Day weekend. I've never been on the east side before. Do you think the crowds will have thinned by, say, Wednesday after Labor Day? Thanks!


Dave


"

Yes. Most are just there for "one last weekend". It should be quiet the rest of the week.

First - Congrats on your future trip! I have been in Entry 47 several times, most recent was last June 10-16, used Rockwood Lodge (The new owners are just as Awesome as Lynn and Mike! - Pay me later for the add Carl!) and our experience has been that Lizz is very busy. We just go with the attitude that this is just part of the trip - expect it and you won't be disappointed and you may get lucky and not have to wait. Back in 2012 we had some real waits at Lizz to Caribou, 3 groups going in and 4 coming out. but overall that was an amazing trip and those portages were such a small part of the experience - it didn't bother us. This last year was busy as well, just not as much waiting. We leave EARLY and shoot for Gaskin, about 4 to 4.5 hours with out killing anyone, just a steady pace. I will add that this year we had two groups go in from Rockwood and my son's group targeted that 5 star site on Vista, every campsite that way was taken so they headed for Gaskin as we had. Made for a long day of paddling for them. We had the island site #627 and they were just down the lake a piece at the nice western facing peninsula #628. Both of those sites are my favorites on Gaskin, maybe the BWCA! There are several great sites on Winchell as well if Gaskin is full or head for the Northern loop and snag a site on that chain - they are not used nearly as much but they are good as well. As others have said - basically "It depends" too many factors to say with certainty, I would not let that stop me from going entry 47, just be ready to look at other lakes and sites and start early, find a site early if you can. We saw moose two times on Horseshoe lake this year, that was amazing. This is an awesome area of the park, more Rocks and cliffs than the Ely side (I like the Ely side as well, but I have really fallen for the Gunflint side personally) Mid June this year we had Smallmouth that just tore up our baits and some Pike, but the smallmouths were voracious on Gaskin. If you need an overnight bunkhouse or outfitting give Carl Madsen a call at Rockwood, they are awesome to work with and they are good folks as well. Enjoy your trip!

Eagle across from #628
#628 Stair landing
Sunset from #628

We did the Liza entry last August. We shoved off very early and didn't really have any issues until the Gaskin portrage but that was just one large group clogging up the entry to the portage.

The same thing happened on the way out on the portage from Horseshoe to Caribou but all in all not too bad.

Gaskin has some nice campsites and if you want one get there early.

I would like to +1 on the owners of Rockwood! We decided to pick up our permit from them but had no other real services purchased (except we got some bait), and they said we could park on their property, and then gave us the clearest and detailed instructions for getting to the Lizz portage ever. It was so easy.

They helped us load our canoe up and steadied it as we got in.

When we were coming out they greeted us, and helped us unload our canoe as well. I don't remember their names, but they're freaking great!

It definitely empties out after Labor Day. We always meet at least one group going in for the week after, but meet 3+ groups exiting.

Thank you IndyScouters and MN_Lindsey, we really do try hard to make everyone's trip special.

As for Poplar entry points, Lizz is the most popular and traveled, both as an entry and as an exit. It's a great EP for first timers and groups that want to put a lot of lakes behind them before setting up camp. What's great about this section is that you can go several different directions if you can't find a campsite, with one of my favorites on Vista. There's another portage (same EP 47 permit) through Swamp, which is rarely used, but Swamp can be good for walleye fishing.

RetiredDave you were asking about Wednesday after Labor Day. It will be busy but less so, that's a good time to shoot for. I try to get my guests onto the water earlier, so they are able to get through the EPs without much traffic and can survey what campsites are breaking down or not.

Meeds entry point is long (just under a mile) but we went in and cleared some downfalls, making it less cumbersome. Skipper entry point is also just over a mile, but it leads to a set of lakes that doesn't get much traffic and has always reported good fishing.

A popular route is to start at EP50 (Cross River) and head towards Poplar. You can take several different routes, based on your decision at Long Island Lake.

If you are at CanoeCopia stop by and say hi. Thanks again for the positive comments!

Thank you Rockwood Lodge. I'll be at Canoecopia this year and I will stop by to chat, and make reservations with you.

Dave

RetiredDave: "Thank you Rockwood Lodge. I'll be at Canoecopia this year and I will stop by to chat, and make reservations with you.


Dave"

Look for the flying moose logo. Our booth is near the restrooms!