Did anyone take the Horse River from Horse Lake towards Basswood Falls late last fall? It was pretty low when we went through in early June, and I can only imagine that it got worse over the dry summer months.

I would imagine that it would take a significant amount of melting snowpack and spring rainfall to bring water levels back up by the end of May?

Following/Interested. Will be traveling thru the area the second week of June.

It was a major slog in mid-September. Lower Basswood Falls to the first portage took us about two hours (and we were running relatively light by then). We never got out but had to pole through mud rather than floating much of it. Lots of longer than usual carries after that in rock gardens that normally have more floating. It basically took a day from Basswood to Horse. Admittedly, we are not the fastest on portages. It will be better now but how much is hard to say. Maybe some early visitors can let us all know.

Even during times of "normal" water levels, there are four liftovers or places you'll want to use painters to guide your precious kevlar canoe, even with a lighter load while day tripping. When heading north out of Horse Lake, three of these are before the first marked portage (which is actually on the right/SE side), and one more after it. Downstream and further north, it's quite a bit deeper and a bit easier going.

This was in mid-August 2012:

You're not going to have any idea until people are taking trips in May or whenever it opens up again.

cyclones30: "You're not going to have any idea until people are taking trips in May or whenever it opens up again. "

There was a decent amount of snowfall this winter in the Ely area so, I'd guess that should bring levels up probably into May. After that, cyclones30 nails it.