Hello,
I have been doing the same basic route for some time now so I have not needed a detailed map. But I would like to switch things up this year. What do you guys/gals use for physical maps? I've heard that the McKenzie Maps are good but I'm not sure if it is detailed enough to be worth the $165 for the complete set? Any insight/advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

They are extremely detailed as are Fishers and Voyagers. Why would you need the entire set? National Geographic has excellent overview maps separated in to Western and Eastern sections that are plenty detailed enough to navigate, detail is small, but are perfect for planning(12.00) each. Then just buy the maps you need every trip. The Nat Geo maps are also excellent back-ups, similar to the Chrismar maps for Quetico. McKenzies are my favorite, but I use all 3, plus the Nat Geo on BW trips depending on route. In Quetico I use Fishers and Chrismar.

I also prefer the McKenzies. At $7 a piece I just buy the ones I’m going to need each year.

AirPrex: "I also prefer the McKenzies. At $7 a piece I just buy the ones I’m going to need each year."

What AirPrex said. Fishers are fine, too. Personal preference. Oftentimes I bring both for verifying portage locations or sometimes the maps split in different locations.

I like the McKenzies best but agree that having different types on a trip will reveal useful info. All of them are good but none are perfect. The back of the Voyaguer maps have a full BWCA map that can be good for planning. Then just buy the McKenzies or Fishers that you need for a trip.

If you can afford the full set and will use them all eventually I suppose there's a price break in there right? I like McKenzies and am slowly building my collection of the area.

I've used both Fisher and McKenzie. I prefer the Fishers. In hind sight I should have bought the entire set. Like many people I bought the Fisher map book for trip planning. Actually wore out my first and I'm, on my second one.

As they said, you don't need the full set. I like the Voyageur maps best followed by a tie of fisher/mckenzie. Figure out where you'll go and then give yourself a bit of a buffer in case you day trip off your original route or need to go elsewhere unforseen. I usually take at least 2 brands of maps for the area we'll be in, nice to compare portage and campsite locations and also some have depth contours and others don't and voyageur has a lot of historic and geologic info on the back for each area.

For trip planning or day dreaming. Fisher sells a large map book containing all of the canoe country area from Int. Falls To Grand Portage for about $20.

Mckenzie here.
I have collected 4 of the maps so far and about to order #5.
It is part of the fun for me. Akin to collecting baseball cards as a kid.
I have a 4x8 dry erase board in my home office and I tape up each years route map every time. makes it easy to study and I can write notes on the board on the side of things I want to see or do.

I'll buy just what I need, whatever the outfitter or store happens to have on hand, and before we head up I make laminated copies using these free resources for others in our group so we have backup:

Free BWCA maps

Once I started using Voyageur maps, I fell in love with them. Of course, they only cover the BWCA. When needing other maps I usually by McKenzie or Fisher. McKenzie’s are more zoomed in for detail then fisher, but it all comes down to personal preference. You definitely don’t need the entire set though, just buy what you need. REI, Midwest Mountaineering, and just about every outfitter near the BW sells them, in addition to online. I just bought a couple of McKenzie Maps from their website (because I couldnt find the ones I needed in stores) and they were in my mailbox 2 days later.

Tony

I have used all of the different maps at one time or another. I like the McKenzie for the most part, but each of them are very good. As others have said National Geographic set is a great planner. After that, I just order the ones that I need for a particular trip. I did order a complete set of the Voyageur maps from Piragis a year or so ago, and have used them a lot for planning.

I have accumulated so many maps over the years...many are previous editions of updates of Fisher and McKenzie maps. I also beta tested the Voyageur maps, so I have most of them. I probably have 50 maps in total. I gotta thin them out.

Mike

I use both Fisher and McKenzie depending on the route. Sometimes you need 2 or 3 Fisher maps to cover your planned route where there is 1 McKenzie map that covers it all and vice versa. For example McKenzie has one map that have the entire Granite river route where you would need to be 2 Fisher Maps for the same area. But in the Poplar lake area, one Fisher maps covers the territory better.

I try to get a Fisher, McKenzie, and True North for the area I'm going to.

Seems excessive, but I like maps.

If you are looking for detailed maps that cover the entire BWCA for a low cost, Fisher has a large map book for $17.95 that covers the entire area in detail. I wouldn't take them for a trip, but it is very helpful for planning. Then you can use any of the big three that you prefer.

I like all the brands of the maps. Not so much the National Geographic, but those are okay for a back up, I guess.

A lot depends on the route & what covers it best with the least amount of maps. If I'm going to be doing a lot of fishing, then I usually go with more McKenzie maps.

scotttimm: "free BWCA maps "

Thank you, very useful!

I like them all just fine. We always take two sets. Voyageur suits my eyes best. Detail in the McKenzies is nice, but I hate that you "paddle off the map" so quickly with them due to their scale.

I use the McKenzie maps and like the detail.

I like them a little less now with the brown shaded relief land area. I could read the topo lines better with the old white background, and it was easier to write notes on them too. I'm not sure when they switched over, but since I always just bought them as I needed them I now have some of each.

I mean, there aren't many options, and none of them are bad:

Fisher
McKenzie
Voyager
Nat Geo
True North

I personally use True North. I can't go back to paper after using one. I thought the various hypes about them might just be gimmicky, but once I actually USED one on a trip...I'm not going back. In combination with True North, I also download maps on Gaia GPS on my phone and use it as a GPS in airplane mode. I've got an old Moto G5+, and it wasn't even close to dead after a week (I turned it off at night an any other extended period of time when I wouldn't be using it). Had a 12000 mAh power bank with me which would have recharged that phone at least 4 times just in case.

What I've found is another benefit of True North is that they are actually eager to make corrections to their maps. All the others seem to just carry the same well-known mistakes over year after year with no interest in correcting them or improving the maps in any way. True North not only takes and welcomes feedback but actually makes the changes and improvements. I'd support True North even if their maps were paper for this alone. Early adopters like myself got a free replacement map for the ones we bought in the mail without even having to ask for them after corrections and improvement were made.