BWCA Trout Lake near Lake Vermilion Boundary Waters Trip Planning Forum
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CatchMe
member (50)member
  
12/05/2022 09:44PM  
Trout Lake has so many campsites. Is it ever tough to find an open site on this Lake? I'm thinking that in the spring time there could be many boats fishing for Lake Trout, but is it busy all season?? There's so many campsites.
Also, the adjacent, dead end, Pine Lake also has a ton of campsites. Any insight?
 
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CatchMe
member (50)member
  
12/05/2022 09:48PM  
This whole area of the BWCA occurs to me as an afterthought. Is it busy down there? Some intimidating portage distances to behold...
12/06/2022 07:38AM  
I've never had a problem finding a site on Trout. Pine can get busier, but there is enough sites to go around. Most of time I've gone through Trout Lake was during August.
12/06/2022 10:23AM  
I’ve never seen it busy. I’ve entered there many times on my way to Buck and Western Lake. It is a very underutilized area. Buck and Western are great fisheries…
Wayouttroy
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12/06/2022 02:06PM  
Been to EP 1 , Trout Lake twice, I agree that this EP is very unutilized, this is a beautiful area, its my favorite EP. I feel the paddle across Vermillion is a big deterrent, wind, Trout can be a challenge if the wind is strong. it seems that tow service is limited. I have relatives on Wolf Bay, get a tow to EP, about 15 miles, been on a couple of windy white cap rides going across Vermillion.
cmanimal
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12/06/2022 07:03PM  
I haven't been there, but last summer it was one of the few EP's that regularly had available permits all summer.
I was wondering why it wasn't shown the love so to speak.
Kaparzo
member (30)member
  
12/06/2022 07:27PM  
I have entered through Trout more than 15 times, usually around Memorial weekend. I have never seen Trout Lake remotely close to full. As Wallee said, Pine can get busy and there are only a few nice campsites. Lake Vermilion and Trout can humble the best paddlers. We’ve had days in 14-16’ boats going into Trout that didn’t feel safe. In my 25+ BWCA trips, members of my group have only swamped a canoe from waves twice. Once on Vermilion and once on Trout. I hear the water in May is quite cold :)
CatchMe
member (50)member
  
12/06/2022 08:52PM  
Does this area of the BWCA have a nickname?
Maiingan
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12/07/2022 05:37AM  
CatchMe: "Does this area of the BWCA have a nickname?"


Namegoszaaga'Iganiing
thegildedgopher
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12/07/2022 09:29AM  
Kaparzo: "I have entered through Trout more than 15 times, usually around Memorial weekend. I have never seen Trout Lake remotely close to full. As Wallee said, Pine can get busy and there are only a few nice campsites. Lake Vermilion and Trout can humble the best paddlers. We’ve had days in 14-16’ boats going into Trout that didn’t feel safe. In my 25+ BWCA trips, members of my group have only swamped a canoe from waves twice. Once on Vermilion and once on Trout. I hear the water in May is quite cold :)"


This was my thought as well. I think Vermilion is the 5th or 6th largest lake in the state, depending on whether you count Lake of the Woods (and excluding Superior). The motorized use on Vermilion (big boats) and Trout (little boats) probably plays a factor as well.

Shoot, some folks avoid the Snowbank entry (4k acres) for the same reasons -- Trout is nearly double that acreage and Vermilion is 10x that. Lots of big water.
TreeBear
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12/07/2022 12:20PM  
cmanimal: "I haven't been there, but last summer it was one of the few EP's that regularly had available permits all summer.
I was wondering why it wasn't shown the love so to speak. "


CatchMe: "This whole area of the BWCA occurs to me as an afterthought. Is it busy down there? Some intimidating portage distances to behold... "


The two detached portions of the BWCA have very distinct personalities from the rest of the wilderness. The eastern section makes a whole lot of sense why it was included. The area was protected fairly early and has some of the more dramatic scenery in the state. The west is well, harder to grasp sometimes. Parts of it were some of the last areas protected as wilderness area which means a lot of it was logged fairly late (up into the 70s.) With that, there's also a LOT of garbage just off the routes in that western section (and yes, we can argue artifacts/garbage, but I think it's easy to call rubbish piles garbage.) The west side to me seems "unfinished" in a lot of ways. There's plenty of old routes or partial old routes that seem more or less forgotten by the forest service. The Little Indian Sioux is likely the longest "maintained" stretch without an official campsite in the BWCA. Places like Maxine, Jig, Gowan, Meritt, Dugout (formerly), Bear, and Neewin have campsites without clear cut intention. Add in a high percentage of the longest portages in the BWCA and minimal maintenance on most of it, and there are a lot of drawbacks for the average group. That said, as a result the west is one of the sections with a higher degree of solitude with less distance required to find it. And I do really appreciate the scenery along the Little Indian. Trout is a motor lake so those of us looking to escape that have to plan for it, and Vermillion can be intimidating. But as others mentioned, there's almost always permits.
CatchMe
member (50)member
  
12/12/2022 09:34AM  
Great responses from everyone. Thank you for your help.
pastorjsackett
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12/12/2022 03:46PM  
This thread has made me think more about the entry. I've been curious about it and my daughter had a great trip in 2020 up in there. Thanks.
 
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