Has anyone in semi-recent years tried continuing to follow the old Hudson-Insula road north and east beyond where the PowWow Trail (west loop) turns west at Pose Lake? The old road crossed Ahmoo Creek there, continued north a smidge more, and then split, with major legs west to Hudson and east along the creek towards Arrow, and a minor one coming off that northeast towards Tornado. I'm most interested in that Tornado spur. Basically, I'm wondering whether there's any chance it's possible to make it to the parcel of land that constitutes the Insula Lake State Forest on foot, and how much of the journey would be total bushwhacking after losing the paths of the old roads. The last trip report I found for this area so far was from 2001, so a bit dated, but at that time there seemed to still be a couple of hunters going back there on a semi-regular basis.

Search for Jackpine Jim or PM him, he has alot of info on your question. He grew up at Forest Center as a kid and knows your area very well. I have his cell number, I will text him to look for this thread.

This link may have some answers for you.

LindenTree: "Search for Jackpine Jim or PM him, he has alot of info on your question. He grew up at Forest Center as a kid and knows your area very well. I have his cell number, I will text him to look for this thread.

This link may have some answers for you. "

I haven’t hiked north past where the old east loop headed towards Arrow lakes. I’ve given “Tomahawk” a heads-up on this thread. He used to bird hunt in that neck of the woods. My guess is that it would be tough sledding in the burn area and hard to follow the old roads although you can see the roads clearly, for the most part, on the satellite view on Google maps.

Jim

My last venture on the North Loop of the Old Pow Wow East Trail (actually the name it acquired after it was abandoned) that ran south of Insula Lake and over toward Arrow Lakes is not recent at all but more recent than 2001. Incidentally, that is the area very near where Jason Rasmussen was lost for 8 days in 2001 and the trails there were reopened by the rescuers as they tried to locate him. Since finding him the trail had grown over once again. The last time I was there was in 2011, the year before the Pagami fire. That fire made it near impossible to get back in there the couple of times that I had tried since the fire. The trail had been recut post-Pagami to the fork to Pose Lake but even that had trees across it that made it extremely difficult to traverse. I never got that far as the turn to Pose, the travel was so tough. So, beyond that after the Pose Fork, the North Loop had been abandoned and was never recut after the fire so I believe it would be near impossible to travel through. If you can even find the trail, the travel going around trees and crawling over trees becomes very tiresome. That North Loop can still be seen on satellite maps ( try this site, hope it opens for you: (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Duluth+Heights,+Duluth,+MN/@47.865043,-91.2833716,1236m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x52ae4cd654f9edcf:0x60fbc920cc1c71b6!8m2!3d46.7954732!4d-92.1494974) as well as the old road that went into Tornado Lake but finding your way through there would be an adult challenge of immense proportions. Not saying it can’t be done but extremely difficult. When I first walked that North Loop on a grouse hunting trip back in 1971 the spur road into Tornado was very visible and was even a 2 track driveable road but the last time I went by there in 2011 I noticed the hardly visible road cut through the trees. If you didn’t know where to look you’d never know it was even there. I walked it a few times back in the 70s and it ended about ½ mi. before the lake as I recall, I never made it to the lake itself.

Tomahawk