This weeks entry point of the week is EP 4 - Crab and Cummings

The long portage from Burntside into Crab is a deterrent for many, but the reward is fewer people and good fishing. This entry point is often reached by a tow to lessen the time paddled on the bigger water of Burntside.

Take a minute in this thread to report your experience, or drop a few campsite ratings or fishing notes from your previous trips.

Who has a trip into this EP this year?

EP 4 Maps

Crab Lake Trip Reports

I’ve base camped on Cummings 3-4 times. Great smallmouth lake and some nice sites. Long portage from Burntside isn’t as bad as you would think.

Trip report


Several excellent campsite options in this area. Nice variety of lake, river paddling and hiking options. It takes a bit of work to get there but, Buck lake offers walleyes in good numbers.

Finally made it to this EP last summer and really enjoyed it. There was a nice combination of smaller lakes and creeks. The tow across Burntside made for a fun start/finish to the trip as well.

This was my first trip with my girlfriend and it was the perfect BWCA starter route due to the easier paddling and portages. The long portage at the start wasn't as bad as I was thinking.

Looking forward to getting back to this area!

We had an amazing time in 2017 on the Crab entry point!
Hope you like top water SMB fishing!

Here's a vlog report!

Crab Lake - Video Report

Did that with a group of scouts one year.
First lesson is to use a tow across Burntside. We didn't. We were originally headed for Cummings, but after paddling across Burntside and the long portage we opted to stay on Crab. The portage was difficult IMO especially with the younger scouts.

We base camped at the first site on the point going in (lake camp 21). Beautiful site. We had 3 tents and a group of 9. Worked out well. The other part of our group went across the lake to lake camp 7. They were happy with that site as well. Fishing was ok.

Great experience in 2016. Launched a 20' Minnesota 3 with eldest daughter and her 10 year old son for his first BWCA adventure. Varieties of paddling conditions--stream/river, small lake, large lake provided superb balance. Good fishing and fauna sightings. Campsite on Cummings magical. Took a tow on Burnside to EP. Highly recommend.

We used this EP for our Sept trip in 2019. We saw a group of 3 solo canoes fishing on Little Crab lake our first day on our way in to Cummings. After that, we didn't see anyone else the rest of the week. We had lake site # 7 on both Cummings and Crab. Both sites are very nice with some great views.

Fire grate area on Cummings:




and on Crab: