Staying in Quetico, photo looking south-southwest....

Maria

Sark or Carin,

They sort of blend together.

I like darky river

Isabella

Emerald

Yum Yum

Jean

Russell

Isabella.

When I first visited this lake in July 2009, it supposedly had multiple campsites. However I was only able to find one that was decent and never could find even remnants of the others. Here's a photo facing northeast and a photo facing east of the many blowdowns in the pines behind this site....

Baird

Meadows

Crawford

Eag.

Jeff

No man

Silence

Robinson

Glacier

Cutty

This man

Ok. There's one way to enter this lake that is way easier than the others. Here's photos of a much harder route....eventually I was paddling northward on this narrow creek into a small lake that led to one remaining short portage to reach my destination lake.....

Mack

Nan Lake

Cache

Ferguson

A couple of relatively close guesses so far. No more pics, but a couple clues. This lake can be reached from an EP with a minimum of 4 portages. Two of the lakes traveled have Grand Slam potential and another has good largemouth. This particular lake, however, sucks for fishing....

Beats me :)

I'll guess Pelee.

Lilypad

Sheridan

Nest

Camel

Well, another clue. As noted earlier, there is one "easy" way into the lake compared to the other harder ways. The easy way requires a rather lengthy paddle between two portages....on a calm day, most strong paddler(s) with a fully loaded canoe would need at least 4-5 hours to paddle from the put-in to take-out on this beautiful deep lake.....

Jasper

Let me clarify my last clue....the 4-5 hr paddle is where you put-in on that beautiful deep lake and then take-out on that same lake. This lake is not the final destination -- Lake 55.....

Ok... last guess, then I'm crying UNCLE.

Soho

never mind. re-read the clues.
deleted

I think you're up on Kawnipi somewhere or Agnes. No other lakes are that lengthy. But you are one off those big lakes.

I'm going with all lakes beginning with 'P's".

Paulene

The beautiful deep lake paddle starts after the 3rd portage and ends at the beginning of the 4th portage into Lake 55....the easiest and fastest route to get there.....

I have one clue left....

Shade

Fair

Sark, but I think way too many portages

Review of clues so far....and the final clue....

1. Pic facing south-southwest

2. Multiple campsites; only one found, campsite pic facing northeast

3. Multiple entries, one far easier than others; pics of a hard way paddling north

4. Lake can be reached from EP in 4 portages thru 2 lakes with Grand Slam and one with good largemouth....

5. The "easy" way into the lake is via calm 4-5 hour paddle through a beautiful deep lake

6. The deep beautiful lake starts at a put-in on this lake and ends with a take-out on this lake....not Lake 55....


And my (hopefully) last clue is that this "thru" lake is the deepest lake in Quetico...

Agnes by many people is the deepest, largemouth bass lake could be Meadows. The lake may be Dack

Ok, I’m rescinding my UNCLE for one more guess. This is a joint effort with MNGreene.

Murdock

Jackfish: "Ok, I’m rescinding my UNCLE for one more guess. This is a joint effort with MNGreene.


Murdock"

That was my next guess

Saganagons

Buckingham

The easiest and quickest route to Lake 55 starts at Prairie Portage....

PineKnot: "The easiest and quickest route to Lake 55 starts at Prairie Portage...."

In your portage count does Prairie portage count as one

No. Didn't include it since the PP ranger station to check-in is on the Basswood side....sorry if that confused anyone....

Well it seems like we go thru Basswood-Sunday-Meadow and than Agnes(deepest lake in Quetico). Three portages used with one left from Agnes to destination lake?

It can only be a couple of choices-Maybe Reid lake?

Sounds like?

Rhymes with?

Just kidding :) I want someone to get this! It won't be me.

Pinetree has it with Reid Lake....Great detective work!!

Here's the backstory.  I made it to Reid Lake the first time in 2009, traveling from Silence through a couple no-names to the west, then north through couple more no-names with rocky portages. Sandwiched between the last two no-names was a really nasty little mudhole entering thru 20+ yards of boot-sucking....er.....mud, short paddle, then the most ridiculous 200+ yards of mossy-slimy-algea-covered small round ankle busting rocks into the final no-name and short portage into Reid.  This was by far the most difficult of the ways into Reid.  In 2017, I entered Reid via Agnes and made my way through a couple portages and little pond to Woodside and then looped through Hurlburt to Payne, William and back to Agnes.  This whole area is remote and I've never encountered anyone, except TomT, who I rendezvoused with for a couple nights on Woodside.  Fishing on Reid is poor, whereas Woodside is loaded with smallies, and trout can be had in Hurlburt and Payne, walleyes etc on William.  I recall TomT caught a monster walleye on Woodside....had to be at least 3 inches long.  Fun times....except for that nasty memorable little mudhole!!

Dack Lake

Thanks, yes going in thru Silence than north thru those are the most rocky ankle breakers I can remember.

I will have to look and see what I have for photos. Took tons of slides, then quit taking photos for awhile. I will get something up tonight.

I did find another two sites on Reid, one that was still usable, the other hardly discernible with a small tree in the moss covered fire pit.
From the northernmost "site".


As noted the route from the south is about as rugged as any in the park. Sweet no name lake three portages to the south of Reid.

Wow, I thought we'd make it to every lake before someone got it right! Seems the lake names are being printed soooo much smaller on my maps. I cant even hold them out far enough to focus. :) And :(

I hear you, Mocha. Have the problem in reverse where even my bifocals can't help. The maps on a couple websites are nice cause you can zoom in quite a bit to see lake names and portages for Quetico.

This is driving me nuts!! I have been doing a book on Snapfish with three of our early canoe trips (trip reports to follow ) and I have a whole section one day about our trip from Agnes to Reid. We were trying to get to Hurlburt, and never could find a portage. I thought of Reid at one time in this contest, but I thought "no one ever goes there." How wrong I was!!