Does anyone have any information on the Beartrap river or Home creek. (North from the Mudro entry point) Are they passable late May early June? I've heard of people traveling that route but am skeptical.

Any experiences or knowledge out there?

We did the Beartrap and stayed on Sunday lake(yes we had PMA permit) on our way to Iron in June a couple years ago. Nice route although portages were a bit over grown and lightly traveled. Definitely doable.

There have been tons & tons of posts on the Beartrap over the years. The search function should yield more information than you can easily read. Good luck!

I'm also considering the sundial PMA area in late September this year. Most of the post on this topic indicate that people generally do it in early Spring to summer when the water levels are high.

Any information from people who have done it late fall would be very much appreciated!

Home creek would not be navigable, I’ve hiked fairly far north from home lake. Take the established routes. I’ve done the beartrap in all seasons, it’s has always been okay, one trip in late October the river was in flood. This does not mean that the river will always be paddlable, I imagine in a drought it might turn into a nasty, muddy mess.

If I get time I will post photos of a usgs quad that shows portages from before this area was a pma. I’ll put them on the pma group, sundial.

I did it in late June two years ago. The water was fairly high, and there were no problems navigating the river. The last portage before Sunday Lake was significantly flooded, but was unavoidable because of the rapids.

minnmike: " We did the Beartrap and stayed on Sunday lake(yes we had PMA permit) on our way to Iron in June a couple years ago. Nice route although portages were a bit over grown and lightly traveled. Definitely doable. "

Ditto. We did May. Good water levels.We were old and fat. We also did a pma permit.

BobDobbs: "I'm also considering the sundial PMA area in late September this year. Most of the post on this topic indicate that people generally do it in early Spring to summer when the water levels are high.


Any information from people who have done it late fall would be very much appreciated!"

I did the Beartrap river from Iron in late July about 2 summers ago. There was plenty of flow through there to make it all the way to Beartrap Lake but I'd check water levels before you go. This Spring I would guess that you would not have any probably due to the snow pack and melt on the way. You may even be able to shoot a few rapids and therefore skip a couple of the longer portages if you are coming up from the south.

It's a great route. I need to get back in there!

If you do decide to run any rapids scout them first, a little river like this in high water Has a tendency to erode the banks. Trees that then fall into the river are called sweepers. Get tangled up in one of these and your pfd won’t be of any help at all. Death traps. ALWAYS scout first. Did I yell that loud enough?

Also consider that if you wrap your canoe around a rock you’re screwed. The power of moving water against an object as large as a canoe is enormous. Chances are great you won’t be able to get the canoe free. I paddle rivers often and at times carry an assortment of pulleys just in case. Needless to say loosing a canoe a dozen miles from the road is not a good situation.