BWCA Most landlocked lake? Boundary Waters Trip Planning Forum
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Ryan
Guest Paddler
  
09/22/2022 12:00PM  
Hey -

I am interested in a theoretical challenge of bringing a canoe to the most land-locked lake in the Boundary Waters.

Anyone have any lakes where you've looked at a map and thought, "That would be a real bastard of a lake to get to?"

Anyone done the research to figure out what is the actual hardest lake to get to?
 
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MikeinMpls
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09/22/2022 03:18PM  
Do a site search on Bushwhack Jamboree. There are some possiblities, though many of them may be in the Q.

Mike
airmorse
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09/22/2022 07:11PM  
State Lake in the BW. Good luck!
09/22/2022 08:53PM  
John Ek is mentioned from time to time...
straighthairedcurly
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09/23/2022 02:52PM  
Study the Primitive Management Areas (Voyager maps show the boundaries). Some pretty ugly spots to reach in places there.
cyclones30
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09/23/2022 05:14PM  
Plenty of them, most in PMA's.

But yeah the bushwhack topics talk about a lot of the potential ones and if people have done them.

Pose, Whelp, and Cortes all look like they're a ways off normal travel routes each in their own way. Whelp is where a fire last year was.
09/24/2022 08:43AM  
Sundial. The lake, not just the PMA. I once read a description saying that it is the least visited lake in all of the BWCA. Not sure if that's true but I've been intrigued by it ever since. Have yet to come across anyone who's actually been to it.
09/24/2022 12:43PM  
sns: "John Ek is mentioned from time to time..."

Wasn't a 2021 fire named after that lake?
09/24/2022 05:28PM  
Not what you're looking for, but someone else's take on Most Remote Lake...

Most remote lake in Minnesota
09/25/2022 10:46AM  
To answer the question about John Ek fire (forgot to include the previous message)- Yes it burned the north/ne shore of the lake and some of the area between there and Little Sag
09/25/2022 10:47AM  
bobbernumber3: "Not what you're looking for, but someone else's take on Most Remote Lake...


Most remote lake in Minnesota "


Perspective is everything, right? While most of would find that suggestion laughable, this author probably truly believes they made a sound choice when compared to lakes elsewhere in the state.
TreeBear
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09/28/2022 02:56PM  
There are so many wonderfully inaccessible lakes. The worst in the BW has to be in the Pagami burn zone north of Isabella in the Fungus Lake PMA. There are lots of little lakes with no maintained routes and, with the old roads and trails obliterated, there's not even anything to follow. I am giving my vote though to Nuthatch Lake. It used to sit along the PowWow (east.) Now it is smack dab in the middle of the burn zone with at least a three mile buffer to a maintained route in any direction (four miles due north and south, three to the east, eight to the west.) There's no creek to follow. If I had to guess about a "best" route, I would say fight south from Insula to the Hope Chain. That's not too bad. Getting to Maniwaki is harder. From Maniwaki, there's a small, unnavigable creek going to the south. Keep following that valley through unspeakably thick burn zone. Don't go up the ridge, just follow the valley for about a mile and a half. The reward for this suffering is a little tiny pothole known as Nuthatch Lake. Some honorable mentions should be given to Whittler, Chickadee, and Fungus for the length of time committed to reach them (but there might be an old hiking campsite there somewhere.) Yoke too deserves a nod. And without making this comment too long, some other names that have come to mind over the years: Blizzard, Wolfpack, Mule (used to be a trail, can't imagine portaging would be fun), Sundial, Old Squaw (Nightingale), Hube, Acorn (Cliff's Pond, near Manomin), Slumber, Phosphor, Janis, Hump, Cat Eyes, Glitter, Acorn (by Seagull), Ellquist, My Lake/Your Lake, Whelp, One Toe, Red Eye, and Canuck and Drag.
Ryan
Guest Paddler
  
09/29/2022 01:23PM  
Heck yes.

These are what I was looking for.

Nuthatch looks like a great (miserable) time.

Acorn looks pretty appealing too. What do you mean by calling it "Cliff's Pond"
TreeBear
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09/29/2022 01:46PM  
Ryan: "Heck yes.


These are what I was looking for.


Nuthatch looks like a great (miserable) time.


Acorn looks pretty appealing too. What do you mean by calling it "Cliff's Pond""


There are two Acorn Lakes in the BWCA, both show up on my suggestion list. However, the one by Manomin shows up with different names depending on the map. I have seen it labeled as Acorn Lake, Cliff's Pond, or Unnamed. I guess the next person to visit would be a foremost expert in the subject, enough to weigh in on what it actually should be named... haha
fishnfreak
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10/01/2022 05:17PM  
state lake
 
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