Hello everyone!

My wife and I are bringing our kids, 9 and 6 to the BWCA for the first time. We will be using entry point #32 to the South Kawishiwi River in mid-august. We are planning to base camp on Gabbro Lake.

We would like to know everyone's thoughts of whether we should enter from the west, a 10 rod portage to Bruin Lake and then a 285 rod portage from there, or if we would be better off paddling the river and coming in from the 120 rod portage on the north
side.

Thanks in advance for all of your suggestions!

Digger07

DO NOT TAKE THE BRUIN LAKE PORTAGE!

Your kids will hate you, your wife will think twice and you won't like yourself much either! :-)

You didn't say when you were going but that is not a portage which is used often at all. Most customers we have had that either tried it, did it or just walked some of it have said they'd always advise against it.

Maybe someone here has done it in the last 2 years that has an updated opinion on it, maybe the Forest Service worked on it or the buggy, low area is better?

VoyagerNorth

Thanks for your response. My wife and I would like to continue to bring our kids to the bwca, so we will probably keep paddling on the river until we can get to the 120 portage from the north side portage of Little Gabbro.

Thanks for your response, we want this to be a great family trip!

Digger07

Digger07: "Hello everyone!

My wife and I are bringing our kids, 9 and 6 to the BWCA for the first time. We will be using entry point #32 to the South Kawishiwi River in mid-august. We are planning to base camp on Gabbro Lake.

We would like to know everyone's thoughts of whether we should enter from the west, a 10 rod portage to Bruin Lake and then a 285 rod portage from there, or if we would be better off paddling the river and coming in from the 120 rod portage on the north
side.

Thanks in advance for all of your suggestions!

Digger07



"

I may have a new bug suite for your little one. Best investment when you are taking kids. If you're in the cities I'll give you the two that I have.

I agree. The river is a nice paddle, and the 120 rd from the river into Little Gabbro is an easy one. Also, plan on taking the 120 rd on the way back, too. We made the mistake of trying the route further to the west from LG to the river (not talking about the Bruin lake portage) and would not recommend it.

Agree with Othello on both points. The river is a pretty easy paddle, depending on water levels you may encounter one portage just before you get to the portage to Little Gab or you may be able to paddle up it. The 120 to Little Gab is an up and over, kind of steep on the Little Gab side but nothing to worry about. The alternative portages a bit further west are a definite NO. I got that look from the wife that VNO mentioned when I took her that way once.

JD

We did the S Kawishiwi - Bruin - Little Gabbro - Gabbro entry route on our first visit to Gabbro in 1993. Memory is a bit foggy after these 27 years, and no original gps track back then to serve as an accurate diary, but what I recall best was how difficult it was to find that first portage to Bruin. Perhaps chalk that up to our map inexperience... it was just my 6th BW trip and that was over the span of 15 years' time... I have no recollection of the difficulty of those portages, but I do know that a decision was made to take the portage south out of Little Gabbro on the way out, so more than likely, it wasn't good. :-)

Agreed. Not only is Bryon hard to walk...it's even harder to find!