First post in this group!

Looking at a Sioux Hustler backpacking trip next week with a buddy, anybody go this way lately? Haven't seen any trip reports or posts within the past few weeks. Wondering if snow cover will make navigation more interesting or if some has melted away. Looks like it'll warm up a little before we step off the end of next week so ground cover could easily change, for better or worse

If you are on Facebook I think someone posted in the BWCA Trails Facebook group about a trip a week or two ago. You might check and or ask there.

geotramper: "If you are on Facebook I think someone posted in the BWCA Trails Facebook group about a trip a week or two ago. You might check and or ask there."

Not on Facebook but will see if I can take a look without an account, thanks for the tip

I did a mid November trip on this route several years ago with my daughter. A couple of inches of snow on top of an inch of ice made for some interesting packpacking. We don’t do gps, finding the trail was tough, also some creative types built artisinal cairns all over the place. Fake Cairns (?) were everywhere. It really messed us up. We wasted a lot of time on these faux trails. The fake cairns won, we did the big boy thing and base camped. Getting lost in the bwca in crap weather in mid November is for fools.

We has our puppy lab on that trip, his second bwca trip. He met a herd of moose and got to listen to a pack of wolves. Super stuff.

If you do a trip this time of year be prepared to quit early. Wet snow sucks. If you are coming up from down south, Indiana maybe, be prepared. Avoid down clothing and bring several pairs of high quality gloves.

Definitely be prepared for winter conditions. Good luck with your trip. Please report back. I would bring a gps just in case.

jwartman59: "I did a mid November trip on this route several years ago with my daughter. A couple of inches of snow on top of an inch of ice made for some interesting packpacking. We don’t do gps, finding the trail was tough, also some creative types built artisinal cairns all over the place. Fake Cairns (?) were everywhere. It really messed us up. We wasted a lot of time on these faux trails. The fake cairns won, we did the big boy thing and base camped. Getting lost in the bwca in crap weather in mid November is for fools.


We has our puppy lab on that trip, his second bwca trip. He met a herd of moose and got to listen to a pack of wolves. Super stuff.


If you do a trip this time of year be prepared to quit early. Wet snow sucks. If you are coming up from down south, Indiana maybe, be prepared. Avoid down clothing and bring several pairs of high quality gloves."

Avoid down clothing? Did you mean avoid cotton? Down can be one of the best insulators on a cold weather backpacking trip. It is lightweight and very packable, two critical things when you have to have all your gear on your back. While it is critical to keep down dry, that isn't too difficult with some care and good waterproof layers.

I didn't have your issue with the cairns when I hiked the trail in 2017 and 2018, but I do agree with SevenofNine that a GPS is a very useful piece of gear to bring on this trail.

Thanks for the background it seems like this time of year will be positive because the undergrowth is gone but any snow cover adds a funky new layer of challenge to trail finding.

Will be set gear wise as I’ve done many shoulder season & winter camping trips. Base layer gloves + outer shell gloves will be key. Also packable puffy coat with merino / synthetic layers underneath + insulated boots.

Garmin Inreach has been my best friend for emergency backup on all BWCA & other journeys, will do the usual waypoint setting beforehand as a backup. I do prefer navigating by map & compass but having the garmin if we get mislead by cairns will be clutch.

Looks like it’s warming up a whole lot this week so that could help melt some snow, who knows just can’t wait to get out there!!

I hiked the trail last summer and did not notice cairns out of place. The ones I noted were marking the correct trail. There are cairns along some of the rock ridges and also where spur trails lead to campsites in some cases. Maybe the situation looks different in snow conditions... or perhaps those faux markers were removed.

I would speculate that the trickiest part may be at some of the beaver meadow crossings. Would be easy to lose trail in there, with snow. Suggest going to far side woods where you know it should be entering and casting about to find trail again, if that happens.

I bring a down coat on trips as well. However it is for around camp when I’m finished for the day. Otherwise I wear lots of fleece with a rain layer over it if need be. I have some wool insulating tops as well it just depends on the type of trip involved.

2 days out from departure & all is looking good. Will be interesting weather shifting from highs in the high 50s to highs in the 20s for the back half of our journey. Layers will be the name of the game, just wondering if my insulated boots will be too warm for the first half, typically would just wear thicker socks & non-insulated boots in the 50s but prefer not to pack that extra pair of boot weight

Hold on to your hats it’s going to be windy this weekend!

Just got off the trail a couple days ago and it was a great hike! Will be posting a trip report sometime soon, solid adventure and glad we went for it