Hello all! With more days above 40deg then below down here in Chicagoland, my heart and mind are longing for the sound of wooden paddles banging against the side of my trusty Grumman Eagle (named Gwaihir, the Wind Lord, the Lord of all the Eagles).

I am planning the seventh straight year of making a pilgrimage to the northwoods and I am looking at doing a very remote trip. Obviously, to do remote, you could simply do it before or after the season (did a solo in October a few years back and didn't see anyone for three days), but my best friend and I are looking to do a trip in late June/early July for 7/8 days. We are both physically fit (former college football player and swimmer), and fairly experienced (I've got 10/11 back country trips under my belt, he has done a few as well as being a former lifeguard) so while I don't long for daunting portages, I can handle them.

We would like either an out and back, or a loop that keeps us in as remote of locations as we can get. We may do a little fishing but neither of us will be spending the majority of the time fishing.

---Two physically fit males

---June/July

---Prioritize remoteness

---out and back/loop, whatever has us ending at the same put in

---In the past, my types of trips have been: Day 1-2, travel. Day 3 Layover, day 4 travel, day 5 layover, day 6-7 travel and out. Something like that is what I would like to achieve, after all it is a vacation haha I'm not looking to break a mileage record, but wouldn't mind if we needed to push the pace on the travel days.

--- Usually I bring all my own stuff up from Chicago and just bunk at Duane's in Babbitt. Brett is great and his prices are cheap, so I'd like to stay there if I can, but I'm flexible.

--- I'm more familiar with central BWCA areas around Basswood, Lake Alice, Snowbank, etc, so I'd be open to exploring more eastern or western places.

---Also, I'm a big fan of cliff jumping, so if you know any good cliffs to jump I'm all ears!

Thank you in advance for your suggestions!

-Runningquist

For remoteness, have you thought about going into one of the Primitive management Areas (PMA)? This is a good option given that you are experienced, physically fit, and sounds like open to some adventure. You definitely want to have good map/compass skills. There is a Private group on here that has more info about PMAs.

Putting in at Missing Link, spending time exploring the PMA right below that, then dropping into the Frost River and looping back up.

To get remote and away from most people you have to cross those big portages. This route was one of hardest we've ever tackled, but it was also one of the most fun! There are route finding challenges, beaver dams come and go making some of the pre-trip intel obsolete. The portage from Boze to Frond was tricky. But we saw things there we have never seen anywhere else. We had a great site on Little Sag, but left early the next morning because the wind was getting stronger as the sun came up. I think we were the only ones that made it off Little Sag that day. We had a stunningly pretty day to travel small lakes and an extra day of solitude on Mesaba because of it.

Entry #38 - Sawbill Lake
Day 1 - Sawbill to Wine - Sawbill Lake, Kelso River, Kelso Lake, Kelso River (Stop and see the dolman), Lujenida Lake, Zenith Lake, Frederick Lake, Wine Lake. Long day but you leave most humans behind with the 480 rod portage from Lujenida to Zenith. Some ups and downs, pack enough water, and break it up. Wine Lake is very seldom visited and has a 2 good campsites. (Island and the one on the east side.)
Day 2 - Wine Lake to Trail Lake - Wine Lake, Mug Lake(stop and take in the waterfalls on the north shore), Poe Lake, Louse Lake (careful footing required from Poe to Louse), Louse Lake, Louse River (be ready to count the beaver dams), Bug Lake, Louse River, Louse River, Trail Lake. After that route you will understand why very few people make it out here. Take an extra day here to savor the solitude. The northern site is the better of the two on Trail.
Day 4 - Trail Lake to Malberg Lake. Trail Lake, Louse River (several portages and beaver dams later), Boze Lake, Frond Lake, Louse River (lots of beaver dams), Malberg Lake. Welcome back to civilization. Malberg can be busy. You are headed north east tomorrow so if you have the energy you can go one more portage out the northeast end of Malberg and there is a campsite on a hill just out of the river entrance to River Lake.
Day 5 - Malberg to Little Saganaga. You are leaving most humans behind again on this day. Malberg Lake, River Lake, Kivaniva Lake, Anit Lake, Pan Lake, Panhandle Lake, Pond, Makwa Lake (huge cliffs to the northwest), Elton Lake, Little Sag. (I take the northern path through the beaver ponds to Little Sag.) . Little Sag is a quintessential canoe country lake. Picturesque islands, beautiful scenery, great fishing, some great campsites.
Day 6 - Layover on LIttle Sag. Paddle up to big Gabimichigami. Or make a loop through Virgin, Peter, French, Powell and West Fern. Or just try your luck fishing Little Sag. Some great fish in there.
Day 7 Little Sag to Mesaba. Little Sag, Mora Lake (Beautiful rapids between LS and Mora), Whipped Lake, Fente Lake, Hub Lake (The Fente to Hub portage will test your fitness level. Great glute burn.), Mesaba Lake. Mesaba is a rarely visited lake. Take the campsite on the point at the northern narrows. (If you would rather not stay on the bigger Little Sag, shift your 2nd layover day to Mesaba Lake. Bushwack back to look at Leah Lake. Its a beautiful little spot with lots of rhododendron on the west shore.)
Day 8 - Mesaba to Sawbill. (Start early today). Mesaba Lake, Hug Lake, Duck Lake, Zenith Lake, (get lots of water again), Lujenida Lake (Your food pack should be a lot lighter by this time. And you will have your portage legs making this trip a lot easier than the first day.), Kelso River, Kelso Lake, Kelso River, Sawbill Lake!

How about a loop starting at Kawishiwi Lake (Entry point 37)?

Once you get past Malberg Lake, you’ll see very few people. From Malberg make your way to Beaver Lake, up to Adams and Boulder, up through the very remote portage to Vee Lake, west through Hoe to Elton Lake.

Make the return loop to Makwa, where there are cliffs that people have jumped from. (One even died, so you might want to reconsider.) Continue south through Pan and Kivaniva back though Malberg and Polly to your starting point.

Have you considered Quetico? That's what I would do if you want remote and seeing very few, if any, people. Lots of Q paddlers here on the board.

I was also thinking head to the Q. But if the bwca is your goal, either check out PMA's as mentioned and their rules or for a route...start or end your trip at Sawbill outfitters on Sawbill. Have them shuttle you or your vehicle depending on which way you go to Kawishiwi lake which is the next EP west. Do a loop up through the Louse River. If you're starting at Sawbill, go North over long portage to Zenith and head west down the river to where it dumps into Malberg, then south and out at Kawishiwi. You'd be going with what little current there is, but have long portage with full food pack. If you do that in reverse the long portage is at the end of the trip and you take out right at their dock.

Last year we did a 7 night trip the 2nd week in June and only saw other people on Days 1, 7 and 8. It's a fairly common route I think, maybe we just got lucky, but we had Finger Lake to ourselves for 2 nights. Here's what we did.

Entered EP 14
LIS, Pauness, Loon, Little Loon, Slim, North, Steep, Eugene, Little Beartrack, Beartrack, Thumb, Finger, Pocket, Ge-Be, Green, Rocky, Oyster, Agnes, Nina Moose
Exited EP16 (But this could easily be modified to exit back at EP14)

Finger Lake was my favorite spot. A couple of really cool campsites there and pretty far in so not a lot of people.

Jackfish: "Have you considered Quetico? That's what I would do if you want remote and seeing very few, if any, people. Lots of Q paddlers here on the board."

What Jackfish said.

I've done a couple of trips through EP #37 to some remote areas that have given me a lot of solitude. The first was a 2014 trip with inspector13 through Malberg to Little Sag and out Sawbill as suggested above. See our trip reports for some info. We went days without seeing anyone but a couple on Fente between just north of Polly and Kelso. We laid over a day on Little Sag; had it all to ourselves.

I did a 2016 solo (see my trip report) through Malberg SW to Fishdance for the pictos, then Alice, Thomas, Fraser, Sagus, Roe, Cap, Boulder to Adams. Between the river north of Fishdance and the Adams to Beaver portage landing I saw 3 groups. Really nice remote area between Sagus and Adams. I don't think many people make it to Adams, even fewer to Boulder. Adams is a really nice lake and the intimate paddle between Boulder and there is remote and beautiful. A slight variation from inspector13's suggestion, which would be a really good trip. I've been across all of it except the part from the Boulder portage intersection with the Cap-Ledge portage east to Makwa.

Here's a link to pictures on Shutterfly for the 2014 and 2016 trips that might give you a better feel for that general area. Both trips were in Sept.

BTW, if you do that suggested loop Malberg, Makwa, Ledge, Boulder would be a better direction - the north portage into Boulder has a very steep drop, which would be a very awkward climb going north.