Hey all
Two dads each with teenagers (15yo and 18yo) will be starting our trip at Magnetic and paddling down the Granite River to Saganaga and points beyond. I have been on plenty of trips but this will be my first foray on the Granite. I have done a number of trips from Sag through Redrock, Alpine and Seagull also the Sag to SAK to Ogish to Seagull loop. No one else in the group has ever been to this area at all.

This will be a 6 night trip and at the end we will be paddling back to Voyageur Canoe Outfitter one way or another (tentatively plan to travel across Sag and down Red Rock to Alpine and out through Seagull). We are bunking at VCO the night before and using them to give us a ride to Magnetic to start the trip. Obviously we will be getting plenty of information from them also, but hoping to hear from anyone who may have done this route recently.

Mostly wandering about campsite options and availability, "interesting" portage situations, etc. We will likely do one night at Clove and the second at Maraboeuf...possibly staying at Marabouf 2 nights.

And since I am here - open to any opinions on these options for itineraries for the 6 nights we will be there. We do want to do a little fishing but not really a priority. Fairly experience group with stronger than average paddlers. Note we don't want more than a couple hours of paddling on our exit day.

1. Clove, Maraboeuf, Sag(probably horseshoe island), Alpine(2 nights with a day trip to Ogish), Seagull.
2. Clove, Maraboeuf(2 nights), Sag(Conners island), Sag(Campers island for 2 nights).
3. Clove, Maraboeuf, Sag (Munker Island), Ester, Ogish, Seagull. (or get to Gneiss on first night and stay two nights on Ester or Ogish).
4. Some version of any of the above

If you're going soon, you will find oodles of blueberries on all of the northern and eastern (and part shaded) slopes. We picked ridiculous amounts of blues one August trip up the Granite and onto Sag.

Your paddle plans are fairly solid; we stayed at the north site on Clove, followed by just past the Elbow, and then an unnamed island on Sag near the corridor (we were exiting Sag).

There are a couple places on the Granite where the river diverges into some rocky pools. You may have to poke about to find the right path. Ditto, a couple portages may have granite slopes at the water line which can be slick when wet.
If memory serves, there's two riffles which you can easily run and a waterfall or two you should most definitely portage around. Your outfitter should be able to point out all these on your maps.

Texting with my friend right now via InReach. He is currently on Sag and headed to Red Rock tomorrow. They came from Maraboeuf where they had the lake to themselves. Very few people on Magnetic river and haven't seen many on Sag. He said water levels were nice for paddling and portaging. I'll see what he says tomorrow for people on Red Rock or Alpine.

Thanks for the info mirth, much appreciated.
We enter a week from Monday on the 22nd. Thought we would be too late for blueberries but have my fingers crossed.

Cowdoc, very excited to hear that the area was not too crowded. Hopefully that holds true. Will look forward to a report from Red Rock and Alpine.

I have also never camped on Saganaga itself...what are the campsites like? Are they typical BWCA or because of the motor users do they get more use? At a minimum we will be at least one night on the lake somewhere.

Buddy said hardly saw anyone on Red Rock. I believe they paddled out today via Seagull

We just camped on Saganaga last week for the first time - Horseshoe Island. Wow - the campsites were beautiful, sprawling sites with incredible views of the lake. We hardly saw anyone while we were there - maybe one canoe group/day and one or two motor boats/day - truly felt peaceful and remote considering where we were. We checked out some nice sites on Government Island and Bradly Island as well. No bugs and loads of blueberries.

I can only give you information on the clove lake area this past weekend it was packed every campsite taken. I did the portage in the clove with one backpack and saw that all three sites were taken so I went back to the campsite before clove and took that and there were two more groups that passed me as I sat in camp and now went into clove lake.

One group came by my site at 7:18 with only about 45 minutes left of light on their way to clove and I knew that it was packed. The next morning I went into clove lake the fish and they had their chairs and canoe set up on the end of the portage and we're making breakfast

Tony

Be advised that yesterday morning there was a bear in my camp on that campsite right before clove lake.
Tony

Thanks for the responses!

I believe our goal will be to make it to the Gneiss Lake/Devil's Elbow area on day one. Seems to be more campsites up there and then onto Saganaga the next day.

Maureen, you have me very curious now about staying on Saganaga. We do plan on a layover day sometime during this trip and we discussed doing this on Saganaga, I was leery of motor noise and more people, but maybe my fears are unwarranted.

Appreciate the heads up on the Bear situation Tony. More incentive to get further downriver that first day!

Cowdoc, appreciate the report on Red Rock. We are leaning toward doing a more ambitious loop along the border and down through Ester and Hanson to SAK before returning through Ogish and Alpine to Seagull, but good to know if we do the shorter route we should have no issues with campsite availability.

5 days and counting.....

Last weekend there must have been 8 or 9 cars at the Larch Creek parking area which seems odd since there is only 1 permit/day for that entry point. Anyway, that probably explains all the people on Clove.

We completed our trip on Sunday, will be writing up a trip report soon, but just a brief recap if anyone else is headed this way -

Granite river was more challenging that I expected. Portages are tough to spot and very technical with some pretty significant challenges. About 1/3 of the campsites were full and we pushed to Devil's Elbow on day one.
Sag falls was crawling with people...probably 30-40 were scattered on the rocks and in the water. Was an 80° and sunny day. By far the biggest crowd I have ever seen within the B-dub.
Night 2 and 3 on the western most campsite on Horseshoe Island. Wasn't planning a layover day but it was a great site and it rained all day on day 3, so we decided to stay put. Fish were biting in the Rain, just trolling around the Island with Rapalas and twister tails...fish tacos for lunch and added fish in our dinners.
With the lost day, we choose to travel through Red Rock to Alpine instead of the longer route over to Ester/Hanson. Alpine was packed. 10 campsites we checked were full. Passed up one very poor site and ended up in the bay going to Rog Lake. Stayed there 2 nights with a day trip to Ogish. Note - Ogish was also packed...we did not see a single open side on the East half of the lake.
Decided to travel through Rog into Seagull due to strong South winds. Had one tough stretch to get to the South short before traveling with the wind up to 3 Mile Island. Found a good campsite in a little bay on the NW side of the island. Strong SSW winds all night and in the morning, made for a very quick and easy exit on our exit day.