Last year I paddled at Lebanon Hills in Eagan, MN with my kids for the first time and really enjoyed the BWCA-lite day-trip experience. If anyone is seeking a similar experience, I find that it is hard to find a map of the canoe route that includes portage lengths. So here is the one they had at the office last year if anyone else would benefit from it. The route isn't grueling, but I like maps. :)

Excellent! Thank you!

We have done this prior to introducing scouts to the BWCA. It is a great place to practice paddling techniques, lifting canoes and short portages.

Love that route - but be warned - you cannot paddle it once the lake vegetation grows... unless you like shoving yourself along on top of weeds. UGH. No fun.

So, go paddle it now before it gets too clogged up.

BWPaddler: "Love that route - but be warned - you cannot paddle it once the lake vegetation grows... unless you like shoving yourself along on top of weeds. UGH. No fun.


So, go paddle it now before it gets too clogged up."

I wondered about that...good tip! I was there in May last year and I'm hoping to get there very soon again.

Way cool. Didn’t know about this. What’s the water like? Is this a route for a nice canoe, or an aluminum monster. Rocky? Will I scrape my boat?

Thanks!

Schulze Lake is about 1-2 miles east on Cliff Road from Pilot Knob Road, on the right hand side. The map doesn't show it, but if you head northwesterly from the visitor center on the trails up to Holland Lake, you will find some fairly decent fishing. Rumor has it that in the deep hole on the south side there are lake trout. Never seen any, but I know from personal experience that there are some decent pike in there(3-5 lbs.), bluegills on the small side and once in a while crappies.
I remember back in the 70's, when there was beach there, you could walk across the lake on all the air mattresses out there.

Bearpath9: "Rumor has it that in the deep hole on the south side there are lake trout."

The DNR data shows that they stock rainbows annually, and previously attempted with browns, but not lakers.

Rainbows, eh ? Well, I had only heard about trout being there, and I did know it was deep on that end. I assumed that they were lakers. My bad.

Bearpath9: "Schulze Lake is about 1-2 miles east on Cliff Road from Pilot Knob Road, on the right hand side. The map doesn't show it, but if you head northwesterly from the visitor center on the trails up to Holland Lake, you will find some fairly decent fishing. Rumor has it that in the deep hole on the south side there are lake trout. Never seen any, but I know from personal experience that there are some decent pike in there(3-5 lbs.), bluegills on the small side and once in a while crappies.
I remember back in the 70's, when there was beach there, you could walk across the lake on all the air mattresses out there."

I should add that there is a parking lot for Holland, but to launch a canoe you will have to portage down to the lake. Not far, very easy, but I am not sure about a good access to the water from there. It gets fairly steep and brushy by the fishing pier. Or, you could do a quickie from Cliff road at the side of the lake. There is a kind of pull over off the road, but I think it is posted no launch. If your fast enough to get your canoe in before a cop drives by, one person could paddle over to the fishing pier, and the other one could drive up and park in the lot.

We caught small rainbows thru the ice on Holland this past winter.

Lebanon Hills had some great singletrack trails for mountain bikes as well.

thegildedgopher: "We caught small rainbows thru the ice on Holland this past winter.


Lebanon Hills had some great singletrack trails for mountain bikes as well."

The bike trails are in the park off of Johnnycake Road, I believe. Not being a mountain biker, I wasn't aware that there are trails at any of the other (Schulze Lake, Holland Lake or Jensen Lake) park entry points. I am pretty sure that you can't get from the Johnnycake entry point to the other three, since there are now houses where there used to be open fields and woodlands. But, I may be wrong about that. The Johnnycake park is my training ground for the BW. Lots of hiking trails there, until you get to the zoo on the south end. You can go from Johnny cake westerly to Galaxie Ave on foot. There is another entrance there, parking along the road, and it isn't as crowded as the Johnnycake entrance.

My folks lived on Holland Lake from '86-'06. Fun little backyard for me when I was in college and still lived with them on and off and before I got married. Sitting along game trails was a favorite pastime of mine. Funny hearing about coyote's invading the metro these days, they have always been around. I'd camo up with a camera in hand and wait for whatever to show. Coyote's, red and gray foxes, deer and there were times I had to let raccoons know "That's close enough."
I wish I was the fisherman back then that I am today. Would have taken that lake more seriously. There was always decent pike and bass. After moving out and in the later 90's I cut my ice fishing teeth on that lake, never expected too much but learned something new every time out. They started to stock the brown trout around that time, breeder fish that were 3-5 lbs. I remember paddling around one day with dozens of nice trout floating dead, it might be 60ft deep, but there wasn't enough oxygen where the cooler water was. Found a barely alive pike that day, skinniest pike I have ever seen, tried reviving it for 15 minutes with no luck. I then weighed it.....14lbs. Would have been close to 20lbs if it was healthy was my guess.
The house is no longer there, and game trails are now paved trails. Still fish it every few years for memories sake. And yes, I haul my canoe down the hill from the parking lot, kind of a pain.
You know why I didn't take fishing that seriously there during my college days? Because there were a hundred bikini clad girls floating around the lake almost every nice day until it was banned. :)

Grizzlyman: "Way cool. Didn’t know about this. What’s the water like? Is this a route for a nice canoe, or an aluminmum monster. Rocky? Will I scrape my boat?


Thanks!"

An aluminum canoe would be fine. The "portages" are all gravel or mulch. Not like the portages in the BWCA. I don't recall too many rocks along the way; but I do remember it being muddy at a lot of the shorelines.

Duff: "My folks lived on Holland Lake from '86-'06."

I had an Aunt that rented an old farmhouse near Dodd and Cliff Roads in the late 60’s early 70’s before they moved to Arkansas. Think how much changed from then.

inspector13: "

Duff: "My folks lived on Holland Lake from '86-'06."

I had an Aunt that rented an old farmhouse near Dodd and Cliff Roads in the late 60’s early 70’s before they moved to Arkansas. Think how much changed from then.


"

MUCH has changed, lol. I have lived in this area since the late 60's, and it is totally different. Lucky that Eagan had the sense to preserve a lot of their woodlands so we can enjoy it today. Most of the other cities around here fell in love with concrete and asphalt. To give it a little perspective, if you took all the people in AV, Eagan, Burnsville, Rosemount, and even Lakeville and Farmington, from say 1970/75, added them up, the total would be less than what you have in any of those towns by itself now.

Here is something that hasn’t changed. Place my dad almost bought in IGH back in 1969. My mother, 100% city girl, refused to allow my dad to do it. She said it was too far out in the country. Us kids sided with dad. Mom said we would never have as many friends living that far out. Mean while two miles away near 75th and Cahill, a future friend and an acquaintance from work were playing duck-duck-gray duck together.

Grizzlyman: "Way cool. Didn’t know about this. What’s the water like? Is this a route for a nice canoe, or an aluminmum monster. Rocky? Will I scrape my boat?


Thanks!"

I was out there yesterday in a Royalex since that is all we have access to, but wouldn't hesitate to bring a nicer canoe. There were all of a handful of rocks, otherwise most portages were sandy. One was pretty muddy. O'Brien to Lily on the O'Brien side had a more typical rocky landing that we are used to in the BWCA/Q. Nothing that can't be overcome by wading a little bit to protect the hull.

The water was warm and pretty clear for a metro lake. We saw turtles, egrets, herons, a muskrat, a crayfish, etc. We weren't fishing, and most of the lakes are fairly shallow as evidenced by the weeds and lily pads.

It was a great warm-up to our August trip for the four of us - my buddy and I are taking our 7 and 9 year old sons for the first time and we wanted to see how the boys would do in and out of the canoe. They're ready!

Yes, you can easily taken nice canoe. Agree with the comments about Muddy Landings and have had one of the kids lose a shoe once. I usually put in at Jensen and paddle to the A-frame building before Schultz to have a picnic and then paddle back.

This is nice little canoe route, Jensen gets fairly clogged with weeds but I’ve done it in all seasons with my canvas canoe. No worries. Spent late 70s summers at holland lake. Bobbing around drinking beer, a couple of those girls in bikinis were my sister and my wife, those were the days. Holland Jensen (old name) had great ski trails till they redesigned them.

They changed the trails to accommodate beginner skiers and dog walkers, who apparently can't read, given how they like to walk on the ski trails.
I paddled Thomas Lake this week, which nearly made me cry, such a beautiful lake ruined by storm sewer drainage which carries everyone's fertilizer into the lake.
I believe Holland Lake is about 50-60 feet deep, all the other lakes in the park are around 15 feet, some even less. That entire area, IGH to Savage is (was) a mini BWCA, so many pothole lakes a result of the last glacier.
If you are wondering why there is so much erosion on the western most trails, and why somebody would be so stupid as to design trails like that .... oops, I'll take part of the blame, as a teen we road motorcycles there, also at Terrace Oaks and Murphy-Hanrehan. We even road motorcycles in the winter after snowmobiles would pack down the trail, then one day I saw skiers on the trail, hey! that looks like fun. So when they made them a park and kicked us out, it wasn't that sad of a day.

Thomas used to be a decent bass lake, but with all the algae it is nothing more than a sewer, though in the last couple of years residents have been sort of concerned about it. Probably not enough to do anything that would improve it. Like Lac Lavon in AV, the homeowners can't decide if their lawns are more important than the quality of the lake in their backyards. Lac Lavon used to be (I think) a hatchery for the DNR, we used to crawl under, or climb over, the fence and fish. Needless to say, it was pretty good fishing.

Lac Lavon was a sand pit, I think the lake is only about 35 feet deep, they tried to make it a trout lake but as you note, the residents kind of killed that, still, the water isn't that bad given what other nearby lakes experience, Alimagnet & Orchard come to mind as lakes with especially putrid water

they also put trout in Holland, which makes more sense since it is deeper and doesn't get as much runoff

I also recently paddled Cobblestone Lake, also a former sand pit, it will be interesting to see how fast that lake goes downhill given all the nearby housing that dumps their runoff into it, I am hoping to paddle nearby East Lake this weekend and get to Long Meadow or Blackdog too, so many lakes, so little time

Yeah, Alimagnet is pretty bad. Has been since I was a kid. Have you been to Orchard lately ? I don't think it is that bad, and I have been fishing there for about the last 3-4 years. Better than it was when the bar/resteraunt (Chart House?) were on the north side. The one that burned down. The two reed patches have given us some decent (3-4 lb.) bass in the past, and last year we killed the crappies out there (7 fingers or so). If you troll between the reeds and the north shore, you can usually pick up a northern or two.

it's been awhile on Orchard, the last time was pretty bad, that and the fact it is kind of boring to paddle being a round lake ....

Crystal Lake has a no wake restriction on, so if you've been thinking about paddling it, now is the time

I'd say Prior, O'Dowd, and Crystal are the most interesting in the area, lots of bay and points, and the water quality is better than most, and on Prior if you need practice in waves ... you will get it

Prior on a warm summer day is a zoo. I quit going there quite a few years ago. And I'm talking about in a boat, not a canoe. The last time I was at O'Dowd, the water wasn't the best. And Crystal is.....well, it's Crystal, not my favorite place. Heading to Orchard tomorrow, maybe, to do a little fishing. Didn't have a bad day at Marion a week ago, crappies by the docks, even a couple of bass hanging out there.

I can understand a fisherman not liking Prior, a lot of bobbing up and down, not as bad as the St. Croix between Prescott & Stillwater though.
In my kayak, that bobbing can make it more fun unless they run me over

I was in my kayak on Prior Saturday, very fun , I don't see how all the thrill seekers can be a negative unless you insist on fishing the main lake, there are many bays and I discovered a mighty fine honey hole of crappies in one of them. The worst part is the landing, but having a kayak I just hauled it up to the parking lot from the landing so I didn't have to wait in line.I got there early so not a problem.
I'm not sure why you don't like Crystal other than the fact it , like Marion, has more fishing pressure per area and thus not as good as Prior.
I'll be sure to pass by Orchard and have a look, but the last time I considered that a clean lake was back when I was a kid 50 years ago, the fishing was poor back then.

ZaraSp00k: "I was in my kayak on Prior Saturday, very fun , I don't see how all the thrill seekers can be a negative unless you insist on fishing the main lake, there are many bays and I discovered a mighty fine honey hole of crappies in one of them. The worst part is the landing, but having a kayak I just hauled it up to the parking lot from the landing so I didn't have to wait in line.I got there early so not a problem.
I'm not sure why you don't like Crystal other than the fact it , like Marion, has more fishing pressure per area and thus not as good as Prior.
I'll be sure to pass by Orchard and have a look, but the last time I considered that a clean lake was back when I was a kid 50 years ago, the fishing was poor back then."

Wanna share your honey hole? My son is just starting to learn to fish. He was out there Saturday also. Couple small bass, and a million tiny bluegills.

Zara, my dislike of Crystal is something that I can't quite explain. I have never had good luck there, so maybe that is it. As for Prior, I (used to) like fishing around the two islands (Martinson?) and the traffic just got to be too much. Yeah, the bays have some good fishing in them, but in my experience (20 years or so ago) they aren't immune from the traffic. Marion has fish in it, not like when it was a good bass lake, but they are there if you know where to look. I remember Orchard from 50 years ago, and I tend to agree with you about that period of time. Now, even with my faulty memory, it seems much better. At least, even on bad days, we catch fish. I am a catch and release guy, so we rarely bring anything home, but we can usually catch enough for a meal, if we wanted to. Have you ever tried Spring Lake ? Not much traffic, and pretty good fishing, though it would be pretty boring for a kayaker, since it is a round type like Orchard. I didn't bring up the public access's on Prior, because I really didn't like them then, and I don't imagine they have improved much.

I took swimming lessons on Spring Lake when I was a kid. I road my bike there on a farm field road from Prior which I lived on for a year. Back then a few of those islands on Prior didn't even exist.
I have fished Spring a few times, but to me it was and is similar to Orchard, which I also biked to for swimming using the two lane roads, water quality, the fishing, and yeah, the shape, even that they both had swimming beaches, resort, and a park. I found the best fishing was in the ponds along the Minnesota River which received almost no pressure and probably still don't. Also trout fished in the Credit River back then, which I also biked to using the old MN13, which had no shoulders. There was a tavern on the river back then between 42 & 13 north of Savage, nestled in the valley.
One of my friends dad would go to Marion bass fishing and take his kid and me along. I just paddled it this past weekend, it didn't look to me like they were having much luck, in fact no luck. Crystal is where I go to paddle when I don't want to go far. Never has been a good place to fish as far as I know, I also went there as a kid, have fond memories with my first girl friend there.

Don't waste your time with Spring Lake. Nothing there. Nope, no fish at all. Not one crappie to be found. In fact you will ruin your boat and lower unit trying. Again...no fish in Spring Lake...nothing to see here, just move along. :)

It is interesting to see how the south metro has changed over the past 50 years. Those of you who have lived here the whole time certainly know. I used to get my hair cut at a barber shop on 54th/Lynndale. The proprietor had a photo on the wall of that intersection from the 60's when Lynndale was not paved passed the city limits through Bloomington. Not long ago, the MPLS boundary was "out there". The once out of the way places or "that lake at the end of the country road" are now surrounded by houses and filled with participants, both fishing and recreation. Progress, I guess in some respects, but on occasion a bit defeating.

One of the things I do like about Spring Lake is that the housing has not yet turned into McMansions. They are will kept but all respectable sizes.

My family moved to AV in '68, new construction east of Cedar. I was born in Iowa, but my grandfather had a cabin on Hinds lake, between Park Rapids and Menahga, which is where I learned to fish and love the outdoors. Has it changed ? Yup, totally. Spent a lot of time on my bike, like Zara, on 2 lane roads with little or no shoulder, looking for somewhere to fish. Some days, I would throw a can of baked beans in my backpack, strap my pole on the bike(no BDB's back then) meet a friend, and we would be gone until evening. Sorry, Jimmy, did I say too much ? I haven't caught much there myself.

Bearpath9: "My family moved to AV in '68, new construction east of Cedar. I was born in Iowa, but my grandfather had a cabin on Hinds lake, between Park Rapids and Menahga, which is where I learned to fish and love the outdoors. Has it changed ? Yup, totally. Spent a lot of time on my bike, like Zara, on 2 lane roads with little or no shoulder, looking for somewhere to fish. Some days, I would throw a can of baked beans in my backpack, strap my pole on the bike(no BDB's back then) meet a friend, and we would be gone until evening. Sorry, Jimmy, did I say too much ? I haven't caught much there myself."

Hey, did you live on Bearpath in Eagan? I lived on Fox Ridge Court for about 20 years, up until 8 years ago. I believe the development I lived in was only about 4 years old when I moved in there.

That is where I live now, Pilgrim. Geez, I felt like Rooster Cogburn for a moment. Grew up in Apple Valley. This development used to be part of the Burgraff's farm before it got sold. My wife grew up over in Cedar Grove, on the other side of Rahn, and part of her brothers treehouse is still in the tree, over by the townhouses on Blackhawk, just up the road. We have lived here since '94.
Edit. Cedar Grove, not Cedar Knolls.

BP

Nope, no worries. The more the merrier. Fish away!

JimmyJustice: "Don't waste your time with Spring Lake. Nothing there. Nope, no fish at all. Not one crappie to be found. In fact you will ruin your boat and lower unit trying. Again...no fish in Spring Lake...nothing to see here, just move along. :)


It is interesting to see how the south metro has changed over the past 50 years. Those of you who have lived here the whole time certainly know. I used to get my hair cut at a barber shop on 54th/Lynndale. The proprietor had a photo on the wall of that intersection from the 60's when Lynndale was not paved passed the city limits through Bloomington. Not long ago, the MPLS boundary was "out there". The once out of the way places or "that lake at the end of the country road" are now surrounded by houses and filled with participants, both fishing and recreation. Progress, I guess in some respects, but on occasion a bit defeating.


One of the things I do like about Spring Lake is that the housing has not yet turned into McMansions. They are will kept but all respectable sizes."

That photo of Lyndale had to be earlier than the 60's, it was the main highway south out of Minneapolis before they put in the freeway. Yes, leaving Minneapolis was slow going thru all those lights on Lyndale. In fact it was MN 169 then and I think whatever the highway # to Faribault was at the time and had a draw bridge over the Minnesota river. Parts of it still exist soth of lakeville, and immediately east of I35. Highway 13 from StP turned south (what is now McColl) at the first stop light west of the freeway interchange and never went to Savage at that time, 169 did, but they moved the 169 designation west over the years.

despite being a boring lake to paddle, I'll have to check out Spring and Orchard just because I haven't been on either in probably 30 years. Last time I was on Orchard was a motorcycle in winter racing snowmobiles.

I recall when they started building Apple Valley, which was the name of the first development out there by Orin Thompson, who also also started Inver Grove Heights with the exact same housing. I believe he was also the guy who had the first development in Blaine, or maybe it was Vern Donay. Our city baseball teams each played a baseball game against Apple Valley so they'd have somebody to play, they only had enough players for one team. I think we had about 8 teams.

I'm late to the game. Orin Thompson built the house I grew up in. We were the first development in Apple valley. I think it was still called Lebenon Hills when I was born .I lived on redwood drive next to the water tower. Spent all my youth around Alimagnet.

tumblehome: "I'm late to the game. Orin Thompson built the house I grew up in. We were the first development in Apple valley. I think it was still called Lebenon Hills when I was born .I lived on redwood drive next to the water tower. Spent all my youth around Alimagnet. "

I had some friends that lived over that way in high school, maybe even on Redwood. I could take you their houses right now, but I can't remember the street names. Sheeesh.

eagle98mn: "Last year I paddled at Lebanon Hills in Eagan, MN with my kids for the first time and really enjoyed the BWCA-lite day-trip experience. If anyone is seeking a similar experience, I find that it is hard to find a map of the canoe route that includes portage lengths. So here is the one they had at the office last year if anyone else would benefit from it. The route isn't grueling, but I like maps. :)

"

Was just there last week, really beautiful area .