Good evening BWCA crew. My adventure partner and I have been enjoying this beautiful experience now for two years and we are addicted. We have been experimenting just south of the Gunflint (EP #47), and we would like to experience a new area of the BWCA. Some bonuses for us include, great fishing opportunities, short portages, and some scenery.

Any thoughts and advice are appreciated.

You could go to the end of the Gunflint and hire a tow boat to take you as far west as they'll go on Sag. Paddle to Ottertrack on Day 1. Fish there or Knife or Ester/Hanson. Could move to any of those lakes on Day 1 or two or whatever. Very few portages, none of them long, and good fishing depending on what you're after.

We base camped on Hanson and ate a lot of lake trout. We took the tow to American Point and got lucky on the way out paddling all the way back across a glassy Saganaga. Beautiful area.

Another suggestion would be to enter at Clearwater or E.Bearskin and explore that area. Very pretty, good fishing, Johnson Falls, moose.

If you do the Sag->Ottertrack route, try to hit the monument portage early in the morning (before 9am) or later in the day. That portage sees a lot of traffic with multiple groups criss-crossing and clogging the portage, particulary the narrow boardwalk out into Swamp.

Depending on when you're going, you'll have to look at permit availability too. Clearwater as mentioned is basically sold out for the summer. But people do cancel here or there but you have to always be checking