Hi,

A group of nine of us are planning to head from Seagull to Ogish to Round in late July (entering on a Monday, exiting on Saturday, if time of week makes a difference here). We're hoping to base camp on Ogish for at least 3 nights, but after diving deeper into the message boards it seems it can be a very popular lake and I'm beginning to get concerned about whether a group of our size will be able to find a decent site.

I'll make a point that the same group did the Granite River route last year and I was warned by quite a few people that we'd have difficulty finding solitude, that it was an extremely busy 'highway' of a route. We crave a bit of solitude, of course, but decided to take the chance anyway. We encountered no more than half a dozen groups in our 5 days on the water, and found it to be very quiet and peaceful.

I understand that individuals' perceptions of what constitutes busy in the BWCA are all relative. That said, I'd love to hear from your experiences while there's still time to make changes if we need to. Thanks in advance.

We hit Ogish the third week of July last year. Coming in from Kingfisher and paddling Southwest, the first two campsites on the west side were both open.

We stayed at the first site, and it's 5 star all the way. Plenty of good tent pads, good fire grate, landing, hammock trees, etc.,,,

It's all luck of the draw I guess, but we had no trouble.

Good luck, have a great trip.

One way to hedge your bets and save some time would be to get an early morning tow across Seagull to the end of three-mile island. You then just have to push across the last part of Seagull to the portage into Alpine. That would shave some time off your travel and get you into Ogish an hour and a half earlier.

After your first day or second night on Ogish, if you feel it's too busy, just start heading east a day sooner. Gabi and Gillis do not see as much traffic as Ogish.

That's our plan too but for the last week of August. Nice big campsite on the west side is our target. We will be paddling through Red Rock, Alpine, Jasper, and Kingfisher. I've heard about a gorgeous site on Jasper that provides a panoramic view of the lake. We are going to stop and consider that as well.

Thanks a million, everyone!