My wife and I will be doing a five day BWCA trip at the end of September. We have taken various trips over the years with outfitters who have planned the route for us, but this time we will be doing it on our own. We are comfortable in a canoe and portaging, plan to switch campsites each night, would like some nice scenery, prefer solitude, will probably stay on the MN side, and don't feel the need to do a marathon each day.

We are fit, but age has made us slow down a bit. Any suggestions for entry points and routes?

Entry 51-Missing Link. Get a shuttle from Rockwood on Poplar Lake and go end to end from Missing Link to Lizz Lake (Entry 47). Stop on Snipe, the east end of Long Island, Winchell for 2 nights (or one night Winchell andone night on Horseshoe), then out through Lizz to Rockwood on Poplar.

Entry 38-Sawbill Lake. Do the Cherokee Loop. Sawbill to Cherokee. Day trip to Frost Lake. Cherokee to South Temperance, ST to Kelly Lake. Kelly Lake to Sawbill

Hope you have a great trip.

Unless the border issues change between now and then, you have to stay on the US side

Questions that may help -
- Is fishing important? very, somewhat, or not at all?
- Any particular things you want to see? Waterfalls, wildlife, cliffs, etc?
- Anything in particular you want to avoid like long or hard portages or big water?
- How many hours of travel would be ideal per day? I think 4-5 hours is reasonable for a fairly relaxed trip, other may think otherwise. This question somewhat goes along with the first one. Keep in mind at end of September, there will be roughly 12 hours of daylight each day.

I think either of Michwall's suggestions are good.

Here are a few more to look at -

1. EP14: Paddle North up through the Pauness lakes into Loon, Little Loon and up to North Lake. Turn SE down to Thumb, back NW to Pocket. Then South through Gebeonequet to Oyster than either back through Hustler, Lynx, and Shell back to the starting point or turn SE and exit at EP16 through Agnes and Nina Moose. I put this here since I am doing this in May. For a five day trip this would take about 5-6 hours per day. If you travel along the border you could cut your travel time a bit but risk some rough conditions on Loon and LLC.

2. EP4: Crab lake North to Cummings, West to Buck, SE to Glenmore, and East to Lunetta. From Lunetta there is a short, medium, or longer route back to Crab. A big variable here is whether you get a tow across Burntside. Depending on the route and the tow, your travel days could be anywhere from 3 hours to 6 hours per day. I have not been in this area but I have researched it and it is on my list to do sooner rather than later.

3. EP27: Snowbank Lake SE to Parent, NW through Disappointment up to Jordan. North through Ashigan to Ensign, West on Ensign before going South to Boot and then back out Snowbank. This would be a shorter route, maybe 3-4 hours per day of travel. After I typed this realized I would probably do this route the opposite way to avoid going West across Snowbank. I have been in this area a couple of times and enjoyed it, but have not done this particular route.

4. EP41 Brule Lake. I've done a 4 day loop here going up to Winchell and Omega, over to
Kiskadinna, then back down to Brule. I thought an enjoyable easy loop that left lots of time for fishing (which for us was pretty poor). IIRC we only really traveled about 3 hours each day.

5. EP51 Missing Link - either a loop through Tuscarora, West to Little Saganaga, then back through the smaller lakes to the North to Brant and back out. Or Travel to Little Sag and then up through Gabi and Ogish and come out on Seagull. I really liked this area the couple times I have been there but it was before the Cavity Lake fire. I would say either of these Loops would take about 4-5 hours of daily travel time to complete in 5 days.

Couple thoughts for you on routes:
EP 47, you actually put in on Poplar Lake outside of the BWCA, either at the landing or an excellent outfitter called Rockwood. Paddle down through Lizz Lake, Caribou lake and head west to Meeds Lake. This is typically a quieter lake with very good fishing and 3 campsites, two on islands. Day 2 head south through Swallow, Pillsbery, Henson and into Gaskin Lake. Take your pick of many nice campsites on this large and very pretty lake. Day 3 head over to Horseshoe Lake and grab a campsite on one of the more unique lakes in the BWCA with good fishing and known for moose sightings. Day 4 head back to Poplar - oops you said 5 days. You could either shorten the travel on a day or two and make this a 5 day route or do a layover on whichever of the sites/lakes that strikes your fancy. Nice area. Could also be done in reverse.

Baker Lake entry #39, very easy start to this trip. Head up to Kelly or Jack for the first night. On to South Temperance for night 2(beautiful lake full of islands, points and bays). Over to Cherokee for night 3(many say it is one of the prettiest lakes in the BWCA). Down to the north end of Sawbill for night 4 and an easy last day to the Sawbill landing. This would require a shuttle back to the Baker Lake entry to get the car but it is not far away, I have no doubt Sawbill Outfitters would accommodate you. Or...If you could add a 6th day head east through Smoke, Flame and Burnt(stay the last night on one of these lakes) back to Kelly Lake and an easy paddle out to the Baker Lake entry and your car. The only thing I am not sure of here is the water levels between Cherokee Lake and Sawbill for a late fall entry, I am sure some on here could comment. On the north end of the Kelly to Jack Lake portage is a short trail that leads to an old abandoned gold mine that is kind of cool, 5 minute walk. Lots of artifacts of days gone by lying around.

Finally I would throw out Mudro entry #23, if you are willing to consider an out and back trip instead of a loop(looks different on the way back, trust me) This is a busy entry but most of the traffic goes north and east through Horse to Basswood. The lakes to the west and north are beautiful with lots of nice campsites and good fishing. Night one on Fairy Lake, coolest little lake I have ever seen and two nice campsites. Or if you are ambitious stop on Gun. If timing works the peninsula site on Gull lake is a beauty for a night somewhere along the way. Night two up to Thunder or if you are feeling lucky go for the 5 star site on Beartrap and a lake to yourselves. Retrace steps back to Gun and head over to Moosecamp Lake, kind of off the beaten path for night 3. There is a river that leads back to Fourtown from there but water levels could be iffy that time of year. If the local intel is good and you are okay with pulling over a few beaver dams, go for it. Otherwise retrace back to Gun or Boot and spend night 4. From Gun out to the entry would be a medium travel day but if you can find another day stop on Fourtown which is another very pretty lake and would leave a very easy last day. This trip could be modified a few ways for less travel time if wanted.

There you go, more options to confuse you:) These are all among my favorite trips and I don't think you could go wrong with any of them. Wherever you go have a great trip and if there are any more questions...ask away.

Thank you for the ideas! It really helps to get some possible options.
Fishing is somewhat important. We are not very good at it, but it is fun to try.
Waterfalls, Cliffs, and wildlife are always fun to see, but we recognize that we probably can't get all of that in 5 days.
We would like to avoid crowds - we are not huge fans of big lakes, but can work our way through one or two if we need to. - We are fine with one or two hard portages, but prefer not to labor away every day on them. Kinda just moderate on it all.
We would probably prefer to average 5 hours a day of paddling.