Welcome to the next edition of Entry Point of the Week. With more planning on the horizon than tripping, this is a great opportunity to virtually explore a new region, share your experiences and knowledge.

This weeks focus is Entry Point 22/23 - Mudro Lake.

- Made famous by what used to be Chainsaw Sisters Saloon at the entry point.
- EP22 - Does not allow camping on Horse lake while EP23 does.

Take a few minutes to explore trip reports and maps, or reply with your perspective on the Mudro Lake EP. If you haven't done so, take a minute to rate campsites and portages or post photos, places of interest, wildlife sitings, etc on the map.

EP 23 Trip Reports
EP 22 Trip Reports

EP Map

Mudro has a special place in my heart along with campsite 1116 on Horse. That was my very first BW trip in 1985. The trip was hastily thrown together with my buddy and I sitting at a bar in Biwabik. I had a canoe, some locals lent us packs, grabbed cooking and camping stuff from the cabin. I've returned 3 times since then.

Supposed to leave from 23 on the 15th of June. Got a permit to camp on Horse, going via Sandpit and Tin Can. Have my fingers crossed.

We've put in here twice, including my first ever trip so it holds a special place for me too. Both were border loops turning south at Jackfish Bay and Friday Bay, one loop in each direction. My second time there was also my wife's first trip. Very cool areas, good fishing, and scenery

Wish the Chainsaw sisters saloon was still there!

taking my first trip out of Mudro at the end of may. Very excited for the trip.

Chainsaw sisters saloon was great!

I remember having a little trouble finding our way into Basswood one trip. I can't remember exactly where we got turned around though.

The horse portage, while long wasn't terrible. The horse portage is the better alternative in my opinion than taking all the short little portages. We've done that as well...it was a pain.

This EP gives you access to alot of great spots, the falls, pictographs on crooked, table rock. You can put together some great loops of varying distance out of this EP.

This was my first trip to the BWCA. One memory was of the week long beard growing contest we had between ourselves. I told the 14 year old boys they weren't trying very hard! :-)
FISHONFISHOFF

This was our group's June 2018 trip. We made it from the entry point to campsite 1873 on Crooked between Friday Bay and Thursday Bay in one long day. The mile portage out of Gun was a death march, and it started raining on us at the Papoose Creek portage and continued all the way up Friday Bay to camp. Long day.

Great area, fishing was stellar. Since we didn't want to do the mile portage again, we came down Wednesday Bay, past Table Rock and the pictographs, saw Lower Basswood Falls and then up the Horse River and stayed our last two nights at campiste #1116 on Horse Lake. On our take out day, we crossed Tin Can Mike and Sandpit back to the EP.

I would highly recommend this route, great location, great fishing, and access to interesting sites like falls and pictographs. Some of the best fun I've had in the BWCA was traversing up the Horse River...what an adventure!


Crooked Lake

Table Rock

Pictographs

Lower Basswood Falls

Horse Lake

Our first trip in at Mudro was in 1996. We base camped on Fourtown. It's a trip we look back on and shake our heads at the equipment and methods we tried out during some of those earlier years. With a number of previous trips on some well-worn but muddy portages under our belts - Fall Lake, Lake One, Gabbro - some of the guys figured that some cheap, flimsy swim socks from Walmart would be just the ticket for portaging. They felt every rock and pebble along those goat paths and regretted the decision almost immediately. Our map reading skills weren’t all that stellar, either; I can recall at least one section that we walked either in or along the water’s edge, wondering if this was supposed to be the trail. It stormed something horrific on one of those nights and we wished that our tents - purchased from a local surplus store - would have been up to the task. While lying there, being drenched as much as sitting outside, I recall saying, “At least there are enough lightning flashes to show that the tent fabric hasn’t ripped completely away... yet...” The morning after, we draped everything out on the rocks and bushes to dry and we were soon visited by a pair from the USFS who commented that they thought they were approaching a crime scene. When we got back to Chainsaw Sisters, our driver confessed to the group that he hadn't figured on the drive distance on the Echo Trail and probably didn’t have enough gas to get back to Ely. This prompted an entertaining exchange between he and the bartender on preparedness, foolishness, and one’s lack of bargaining leverage regarding the price of gas in these parts. At least it gave us time for a second beer in some pretty unique environs.

We've been back another 5 times. On Fourtown, we’ve enjoyed sites 1108 and 1099... plenty of room for larger groups. On Horse, it’s been sites 1113 - the north island (with lots of pesky rodents) - and, of course, 1116 - the most coveted site on the lake, right at the source of the Horse River.

As bad as that first Mudro experience was, a more recent trip out of the same EP goes down as providing the best day I’ve ever spent in the BWCAW: a terrific day trip from Horse Lake to Lower Basswood Falls and the pictographs just north of there. The fun twists and turns in the river, the power of the falls, the sheer grandeur of the pictos on those cliffs... In addition to the 3 marked portages, the Horse River also had 3 spots where we had to use painters to guide our canoes through low water. No biggie, but it took some finesse to hop from rock to rock while leading the remaining passenger through.

We have our Mudro permit reserved and plan to return to Horse Lake this July, if we can.

Mudro parking today:


Pickett Lake