Hi all, I got a permit back in March for next week at EP 47 when I was thinking my daughter and I would take my sister and my sister's significant other on a first trip to the BW. I chose the entry point because it has so many options, with lots of short options in case they wanted an easy trip.

Well, not unexpectedly, they won't be joining us. So my daughter and I will be making an unusually short trip for the two of us, four days and three nights, one canoe, single portaging. We're looking to cover some ground, but to relax a little too, since her cross-country season starts the day after we get back.

I have two ideas. One, we head in through Caribou to Henson or Omega the first day, head on out to Long Island Lake the second day, then meander back through Banadad and Rush to the entry on days three and four. That's only 28 miles single portaging so may be a bit on the short side, but it has enough portages to keep things interesting regardless. And we could always head on west to Cherokee instead of stopping at Long Island Lake, bringing total distance to 37 miles, single portage. I've never been on Cherokee, so that's kind of intriguing. I did the chain from Poplar to Rush to Banadad to Long Island last summer and enjoyed the solitude there, but M hasn't been there, so that's also a plus.

The other possibility is to head back through Winchell. Those either involve heading over to Cherokee and down to Brule, which puts us at least at 44 miles, or else cutting down at Davis, which leaves us a bit short at just under 30 miles. I haven't been in this section at all so it would be a new area, which is fun, but it involves more retracing our steps, and I really disliking doing that when I don't have to. Also, both Brule and Winchell are bigger lakes, which isn't my favorite, but we'd be heading east on them and August usually has fair weather anyway.

I'm leaning toward the first route, especially because it gives us more options to decide on the fly how far we want to go. But what do y'all think?

My last 3 trips have been in this area. Another option is to go in at #47 down through Lizz, Caribou, and Horseshoe then exit the north arm of Horseshoe and head across to Long Island then exit at Cross Bay EP (Ham Lake). One of the outfitters in the area could provide you a shuttle. In May I entered at Cross Bay (Ham Lake) and exited at #47. Instead of going to Long Island you could also cut down to Winchell and come back through Gaskin and Horseshoe, perhaps spend a night on Vista. The small narrow lakes north of Gaskin are terrific. Horseshoe is known for moose sightings.