Hi Everyone,

I’m looking for some input on a trip my wife and I are doing next spring and I’ll fill you in on the motivations and reasons for this bizarre adventure first. So, we’ve wanted a larger canoe that can hold our entire family of five so that we can do some family trips. We simply can’t take two canoes on a trip yet because my two oldest kids (8 and 6) aren’t strong/big enough to handle bow paddling yet. We bought a used Bell Northwoods 4 from Tuscarora Canoe Outfitters on the Gunflint Trail to solve this problem. Boom, got the canoe, now we need to arrange to pick it up in May. Then I think, let’s hike the Kekekabic Trail from the Ely side to go pick it up, then paddle it back. Then we can make a trip out of an errand. Plus, we have a cabin on the Ely side and that’s where we’ll be keeping the boat. So, here comes my series of questions:

1. Is it feasible to do the Kek Trail in two days in the spring? At this point in the planning, time is an issue as I’m not sure how many days we can get grandparents lined up to help with our kids back home. I’d like to knock out 20+ miles on day 1 and another 20 on day two and then spend the night in a bunkhouse before getting up and paddling back to Ely the next morning. We’ve hiked about 10 miles of the Kek in around 4 hours so I’m thinking it can be done. We’ve also both run marathons before so we are used to logging some miles.

2. Which campsite are the better ones along the Kekekabic Trail? I’ve never through hiked it, only day trips from the Ely side.

3. Which route should I take on the paddle back? I’m leaning towards going through the Brant Lake EP and heading either west through Gillis, Little Sag, Elton, Vee, sledge, Frazier, all the way to Disappointment then Snowbank. Or option B is to head northwest up through Gabi and into SAK and down through Knife, Ensign, Boot then Snowbank. We could also loop more south and come back to Lake One. The priority is to start at Brant and end at Snowbank.

4. Dates? I’d like to get out there not too long after ice out, so I’m thinking middle of May. I’ve also heard May is the best and clearest time to hike the Kek Trail? But, we are flexible with times in May.

5. The Kekekabic burn areas: I know the Kek Trail was hit hard by the cavity and ham lake fires, is it tough to follow through the eastern portion? Is it flagged at all like the west side is? Are campsites greatly affected? We’ll have maps, compass and GPS with us.

I’ll probably think of more questions, but I greatly appreciate any feedback the forum has to these questions.

Thanks so much!

Gopher Adventure aka Tony

Not sure I’d plan only two days to hike the key in spring. There will most likely be deadfall from winter winds and snowfall. Great idea though! Paddling across the baca offers so many route options. Perhaps look into a shuttle from elk to tuscarorA to start your trip.

The little bit of the trail that I've seen around Kek is just not that inviting TBH.

If you can handle the portages to angleworm, THAT is a nice hiking trail.

My $.02 if you want to combine hiking and paddling is to just pick up the Canoe, drive to Ely, spend the night, and the next morning head up to angleworm. Depending on the route you take in, the initial portage is a hike unto itself!

If you think for 1 minute of hiking the Kek in May in 2 days, you might need
2 snowblowers and plenty of chainsaws, neither of which are legal.
I've picked up plenty of well fit people and dropped that time of year
before, and first words are never again. Good luck, on best conditions
that would be pushing it, I've hiked it 3 times full trail.

A guy just ran the whole trail, but that's after a summer of trail maintenance. I'd guess in the spring you'll be crossing high streams and jumping or ducking a lot of downed trees.

I think it's wonderful idea, but only if you have a sensable timeframes. If you are going to have hard deadlines with child care you need to base your itinerary on the worst case scenario. The Kek in May could be a real challenge. You could very well be the first through travelers of the season with no trail condition info at all.