When planning my routes I always end up getting side tracked looking at lakes off the beaten path. I usually end up searching the forum and can find info from someone who has braved the uncharted bushwack.

My question is... does anyone has a lake in mind that they have never heard/read getting to in the BWCA?

Ranger Lake, west of Cherokee. Supposedly a portage to it, but no one has ever found it. The Fisher map I have shows an 80 rod portage to it from halfway up Cherokee on the west side, then 50 rods to Guard Lake, 25 rods to Wing Lake, 25 rods to Noodle Lake, and a creek or stream northwards into the south end of Frost Lake. Looks like a good bushwhack for someone.

I posted about Ranger Lake about 10 years ago, and no one could ever find the portage to it. Thus, it is a bushwhack, I guess.

Tomster

Ferne Lake north of the Perent River. Access from EP 25 Isabella Lake or EP 26 Hog Creek. An unmaintained portage for many years. I own the book Exploring the Boundary Waters by Daniel Pauly and in his book he states that he was unable to locate the portage while doing research for the book in the early 2000s. Some brave soul on this website apparently found and used the portage in the early 2010s.

Kendis: "Ferne Lake north of the Perent River. Access from EP 25 Isabella Lake or EP 26 Hog Creek."

I used to fish Ferne Lake before the Pagami Creek Fire. The portage was about a mile and was often difficult to follow, but It's a great little lake with good walleye fishing. I have not tried to get there since. I like to try but I usually fly solo and would prefer to have a partner for the bushwhack.

There's a lake south of Shell Lake called Dogfish Lake. One of my old maps shows a portage from Shell. I thought I found it once, but the trail petered out and I wasn't ready to bushwhack the rest of the way. I'd like to get in there to catch some Dogfish.

State lake.

We have bushwhacked to the shores of Leah Lake (east of Mesaba). Very pretty spot. I wonder if anyone has ever gotten a canoe in there?

Outside of the BW I've bushwhacked to a number of lakes, some to just see, some to fish. Inside the BW, I bushwhacked south off of the Isabella to Mitiwan creek to see if there were any brookies in there. They might be, but I didn't find them.

Sumpet Lake seems to fit the bill. There's a portage marked on the maps, a quick look at google earth, makes me question how you'd get up that creek to the portage, but interestingly enough it kind of looks like a portage landing on google earth where the map shows it and I could see where you'd finish the portage on the other end...but like who would go there and why? The DNR surveyed it in 1991 - nothing but minnows.

I might go there. Maybe jump out of work early some spring day. I kind of want to see the rock feature just to the east of the lake as well. It looks like about as straight of line as you'll find in nature.

Always fun to consider those lakes. One I've eyed, but have never attempted, is Starlight. Tighten the shoelaces and cinch the belt...looks like a real bushcrash.

Been to State lake portaging a Wenonah Whiter Water II and caught a perch. I know of others that have skied in from Winchell. I would like to check out a few of the smaller lakes in that area like Red Eye. I have also Portaged into Tremble and Whiteacre with a solo canoe. The challenge is always a mental game of is the work involved- worth it.

Dan Cooke: "Been to State lake portaging a Wenonah Whiter Water II and caught a perch. I know of others that have skied in from Winchell. I would like to check out a few of the smaller lakes in that area like Red Eye. I have also Portaged into Tremble and Whiteacre with a solo canoe. The challenge is always a mental game of is the work involved- worth it. "

RedEye remains one of the lakes I most want to visit. I have always considered it the highest named lake in the state (unsure if that's totally true, but from what I have seen of the maps, it's the only one above 2k elevation.)

I also really want to see Bear between Vermillion and Phantom. The "abandoned" routes fascinate me (as do the abandoned campsites.) That side of the boundary waters also has loads of old logging garbage which can be disheartening at times, but is also a good history lesson. North of Bear, there are a few pine plantations visible. There's also some beaver dams on that creek that, when measured on the airphotos, clock in at 3, 4, and even as high as 7 hundred feet long. I kinda want to see that.

My third candidate of strange buswhack lakes I want to see in my lifetime: Canuck. It's that little swampy pond underneath Moose Mountain. Not a lot of water to go around, but who can argue with the topography?

As for lakes I feel are unvisited. There is a lake sometimes referred to as Acorn sometimes referred to as Cliff's Pond. It sits, buffered by miles of swamp, west of Manomin and north of Wind. I've always wondered if the folks who named it ever laid eyes on it.

And for formerly maintained routes that may not see people ever again, I am tossing Screamer into that list. Long portages to Fishdance and Maniwaki. No real reason to visit other than trying to get from Maniwaki to Fishdance. Bet it's been decades since it has had a visitor (Pagami didn't help.)

Red eye is near the highest, I thought I remembered one higher outside the BWCA south and east of Brule. Will check maybe tonight. State to Red Eye to Whiteacre on to Rug is a trip that i have mulled over for decades. Fun to look at maps and wonder.....

i thought lake of the clouds or lunar lake was the highest lake.
wonder if red eye is even accessible since the red eye fire?

I think it's a little brookie lake called Thrush at 2115 elevation.

It is Thrush, but my map has it at just below 2100 like 2080-90.

Thrasher (below Thrush) is in the 2070s as is Red Eye. Abita is in the 2050s I think?

Lake of the Clouds, so often touted as the highest (for some reason), Is nearly 600 feet below at about 1500 ft in elevation. Ironically, Lake of the clouds is actually well below Gabi in elevation. It's just really prominently perched above Knife.

Cal Topo program puts Thrush at 2090
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/lake.html?id=16019100
Thrush (16019100)

ID: 16019100
County: Cook
Near: Grand Marais
Border Water: No
Sentinel Lake: No
Size and Depth
Area: 14.95 acres
Littoral Area: 6.2 acres
Shore Length: 0.62 miles
Maximum Depth: 48 feet

Fish Species: brook trout, lake trout, brook stickleback, fathead minnow, finescale dace, Iowa darter, northern pearl dace, northern redbelly dace

Terms and Conditions of Use

Fishing Regulations:
General »
Inland Waters »

Special Fishing Regulations: This lake has special fishing regulations that differ from statewide or border water regulations for those species identified below and take precedence. Regulations listed below are currently in place. Visit the fishing regulations page for links to upcoming regulations for specific lakes.

Trout: Catch-and-release only. Artificial lures and flies with a single hook only. Use and possession of bait prohibited. Closed to winter fishing.

The good old Iowa Darter!

egknuti: "There's a lake south of Shell Lake called Dogfish Lake. One of my old maps shows a portage from Shell. I thought I found it once, but the trail petered out and I wasn't ready to bushwhack the rest of the way. I'd like to get in there to catch some Dogfish. "

I skied there years ago on crusted snow. Interesting thing was there was a fire grate and a latrine dumped in the shore, like the USFS dumped them there by plane and intended to go back and create a campsite. Guessing they never did. Always meant to bushwhack there and try the fishing.

Sundial lake, not the PMA but the lake itself. Someday I'll get there. Not sure why just always seemed interesting.

From west to east.....Jackfish, Sedative (huh?) and Barto all are decent sized lakes off any real routes that sound like fun

Not entirely sure why, but My Lake and Your Lake are calling to me despite being pretty small. I'm headed into the Mugwump PMA this summer and those are on my wish list. Hope I can make it to at least one of them, then down to Van Lake, Bewon, and out at Ledge. Whew. Perhaps it'll simply happen in my mind and I'll go around the PMA but look longingly towards the remote wilderness.

marsonite: "

egknuti: "There's a lake south of Shell Lake called Dogfish Lake. One of my old maps shows a portage from Shell. I thought I found it once, but the trail petered out and I wasn't ready to bushwhack the rest of the way. I'd like to get in there to catch some Dogfish. "

I skied there years ago on crusted snow. Interesting thing was there was a fire grate and a latrine dumped in the shore, like the USFS dumped them there by plane and intended to go back and create a campsite. Guessing they never did. Always meant to bushwhack there and try the fishing. "

What was your route in. I’d be interested in skiing to the lake.

egknuti: "

marsonite: "

egknuti: "There's a lake south of Shell Lake called Dogfish Lake. One of my old maps shows a portage from Shell. I thought I found it once, but the trail petered out and I wasn't ready to bushwhack the rest of the way. I'd like to get in there to catch some Dogfish. "

I skied there years ago on crusted snow. Interesting thing was there was a fire grate and a latrine dumped in the shore, like the USFS dumped them there by plane and intended to go back and create a campsite. Guessing they never did. Always meant to bushwhack there and try the fishing. "

What was your route in. I’d be interested in skiing to the lake. "

It's been a few years, but I believe I entered from the gravel pit on Range Line Creek off the Echo Trail. Now the map shows the Sioux Hustler Trailhead there...I don't think it was back then. Didn't it used to cross the Indian Sioux at Elm portage?

Anyway, I bushwhacked to Woksapiwi Lake and then followed the creek downstream. There were some big beaver dams which made travel pretty easy. I can't remember too much about getting to Woksapiwi but I think the swamp was pretty good travelling. Might have even followed some old winter logging roads. There is a small creek flowing out of Dogfish into Woksapiwi creek which I followed up to the lake. The fire grate was on the left of the outflow. I wonder if it's still there?

I believe I then bushwhacked to Shell and took the portage to Pauness. Like I said, this was on crusted spring snow--pretty ideal conditions.

Interesting that Woksapiwi has an Native name. It was completely surrounded by bog. Funny they would even name it.

Has anyone been to Bear lake west of Boulder lake off of Phantom creek.

There is actually a campsite on it, but I doubt it has been used.

marsonite: "

egknuti: "

marsonite: "

egknuti: "There's a lake south of Shell Lake called Dogfish Lake. One of my old maps shows a portage from Shell. I thought I found it once, but the trail petered out and I wasn't ready to bushwhack the rest of the way. I'd like to get in there to catch some Dogfish. "

I skied there years ago on crusted snow. Interesting thing was there was a fire grate and a latrine dumped in the shore, like the USFS dumped them there by plane and intended to go back and create a campsite. Guessing they never did. Always meant to bushwhack there and try the fishing. "

What was your route in. I’d be interested in skiing to the lake. "

It's been a few years, but I believe I entered from the gravel pit on Range Line Creek off the Echo Trail. Now the map shows the Sioux Hustler Trailhead there...I don't think it was back then. Didn't it used to cross the Indian Sioux at Elm portage?


Anyway, I bushwhacked to Woksapiwi Lake and then followed the creek downstream. There were some big beaver dams which made travel pretty easy. I can't remember too much about getting to Woksapiwi but I think the swamp was pretty good travelling. Might have even followed some old winter logging roads. There is a small creek flowing out of Dogfish into Woksapiwi creek which I followed up to the lake. The fire grate was on the left of the outflow. I wonder if it's still there?


I believe I then bushwhacked to Shell and took the portage to Pauness. Like I said, this was on crusted spring snow--pretty ideal conditions.


Interesting that Woksapiwi has an Native name. It was completely surrounded by bog. Funny they would even name it."

Yes, the SHT did cross at Elm Portage and went to another trailhead if I remember correctly. Those winter logging roads I have been on, but some years ago the Forest Service bulldozed the road (not sure why). I'll see if I can find another way there-maybe before the snow melts.

I've hiked and snowshoed to Mule Lake off the old La Croix Trail, but I have yet to wet a line.

Rangeline and Batista
Understandably, it seems few have put an extended effort in fishing either of these lakes. Rangeline has a depth map and it looks interesting.

There is a poster Stumpy is friends with that has been to Rangeline a few times. He hasn’t posted in years that I know of…maybe Stumpy will chime in? I believe it has Northerns in it. It was on my list but then I started hitting the Q.

The one I really want to get too is BakeKana near Wisini. My wife and I had this all planned out one year…We were approaching the creek to start the adventure and for whatever reason she just decided she wasn’t up for it…The creek form Wisini was a jumbled mess it looked to be a long trip. I had dreams of a lake filled with lake trout. It is small but has the elevation around it to possibly be a trout lake. We even had a PMA permit in case we wanted to camp on it. We’ll see…maybe someday?

I think part of the reason Sara balked is it was an 8 day trip that rained for 10 days :)

T

Barto Lake since it is my mother’s maiden name. I think I remember a group from Sawbill Outfitters went there one time and had a story about it. Or tried to.

Has anyone been to Saddle Lake, northeast of Boze Lake?

JackpineJim: "Has anyone been to Saddle Lake, northeast of Boze Lake?"

I haven't yet. I put it on a future "bushwhack route options" list as a possible route via the waterfowl chain to Mahlberg. The whole Louse/Frost/Lady Chain area is really unique for how much space/how many lakes there are without a route or PMA.

fairmatt: "Rangeline and Batista
Understandably, it seems few have put an extended effort in fishing either of these lakes. Rangeline has a depth map and it looks interesting.
"

We hiked up there with rods in 2021. Fishing from the campsite we didn't have much luck other than a few small yellow perch, but I have been dreaming of making a week of it and hiking a canoe up there one day.

2023 we did contentment, brigand, and pageant. Getting to brigand was a challenge and we saw no sign that anyone had been through there in a while. Getting down to pageant from there was damn near impossible. Will never go to pageant that way again. Hiking the souix Hustler was way easier. Sometimes these lakes are unexplored or very rarely visited for a reason.


I always wanted to check out Auchagah lake right off LLC. I had asked about it in the forum before but no one had been, and the water is some of the bluest in the area (via Google maps satellite images). Wouldn't mind making the bushwack to see what's going on.

We stayed at the only campsite on Town lake a couple years ago. We caught a couple 30 plus inch pike in there. Found a rough portage up to cash. The maps on this site show portages from cash to gunstock, cleft and jay lakes. Seems like a pretty isolated area and I bet there are some big fish in them waters.

Sparkeh: "We stayed at the only campsite on Town lake a couple years ago. We caught a couple 30 plus inch pike in there. Found a rough portage up to cash. The maps on this site show portages from cash to gunstock, cleft and jay lakes. Seems like a pretty isolated area and I bet there are some big fish in them waters. "

Hopefully - that's always been the thought on my mind when I partake on some crazy adventure into some remote area...more often than not, there's a reason those portages or trails got abandon. Maybe 3 out of 50 remote lakes or streams i've crawled into, has there been anything worthwhile catching. More often it's choke full of tiny northern, wild rice or creek chubs.

How about Beatty Lake? It is located east of Beatty Portage and north of Loon Lake. I've never found anyone who has fished it or even bushwhacked to it.

Holt Lake north of Ogish has intrigued me. I’ve posted a couple of times asking for info. No one seems to know much about it. I recall that it may be a trout lake. The maps here show portages but they are not maintained.

There is a pretty decent trail to Washte (at least there was in 2021) from Wind Lake, but we couldn't figure out how you would possibly get a canoe in the water. I've read some other posts about fishing Washte but it's pretty small so it would have to be drastically better than the fishing on Wind to make it worth it. Beyond that is Witness Lake which appears to have no access. Anybody ever been there?

Tern Lake off of Jasper. My wife and I bushwhacked there several years ago and caught many nice smallies. As a bonus watched a cow moose and her twins. An old Fisher's map shows a portage, but I think fires have erased it. We went in on the other side of the little stream.

Not Beatty lake but I've been on Norway Lake north of Beatty. Its a simple bushwhack from Slim. I fished an hour or so and caught a dozen smaller northerns, best fishing is on the far west end where the water flows out. It's a bit deeper on the entire west end. nice little lake, feels remote, the way in from the west is really neat with the tallest beaver dam i have ever seen.
I'm interested in Wolfpack lake west of Little Pauness. Looks like a tough spot to get to.

Thanks for the heads up on Norway Lake Redbeard. With the grandkids getting older we'll plan on doing a trek into it from Slim this June.

cyclones30: "From west to east.....Jackfish, Sedative (huh?) and Barto all are decent sized lakes off any real routes that sound like fun "

Sedative Lake has had visitors but the nearby Solitude Lake I have found no evidence of anyone getting in there in decades

That sounds like a fun Trek!

Speckled: "

Sparkeh: "We stayed at the only campsite on Town lake a couple years ago. We caught a couple 30 plus inch pike in there. Found a rough portage up to cash. The maps on this site show portages from cash to gunstock, cleft and jay lakes. Seems like a pretty isolated area and I bet there are some big fish in them waters. "

Hopefully - that's always been the thought on my mind when I partake on some crazy adventure into some remote area...more often than not, there's a reason those portages or trails got abandon. Maybe 3 out of 50 remote lakes or streams i've crawled into, has there been anything worthwhile catching. More often it's choke full of tiny northern, wild rice or creek chubs. "

I did take a walk up to cash lake but did not fish it. It looks nice. No rice that I can remember. Cash is in the burn area but gunstock, cleft and jay are not. To me it looks like that area may have been an old route to long island lake from town. Maybe abandoned after the fire?