I'm excited to be going back to the BWCA. I've been to Crab Lake twice but would like to make it over to the lakes to the southwest, mainly Battle Lake. I'm wondering if any of you have been through that area. Any information would be appreciated.

I went there a few years ago. I think it was the first summer of Covid so the BW was crazy busy…we had battle lake to ourselves but the next night we couldn’t find a campsite and had to go nearly to the portage to Burntside. We decided to spend our last night on Burntside, paddled Crab creek which was very nice, but couldn’t find a camp on Burntside either! Hopefully things have calmed down since then.

The little lakes SW of Crab are nice. I remember the portage out of Crab goes through a nice stand of red pines. A fire went through there recently—area of Meat Lake
If I remember correctly. Battle lake wasn’t burned. Nice camping on the island. I didn’t fish so I’m no help there.

In July 2021 we did that loop of lakes. We came down from Lunetta to Hassel and went clockwise to Boulder, spent the night there, and then went back to Phantom -> Battle -> Hassel -> Saca -> Crab -> exit. Despite it being high season, and with the closure of the entire western half of the park due to Quetico fires forcing us and others into the region south of the Echo Trail, the only occupied site we saw outside of Crab was the one on Clark, and the only other group we ran into was on the Crab-Clark portage. So you'll probably find solitude there, at the very least.

Battle seemed like a very nice lake. We saw a family of otters at the north end of it on our way out to Hassel, and spent a while waiting and watching them and taking pictures.

Boulder was isolated, and you can see some pictures of it in a recent NTL. I was really looking forward to a swim that day after 1200 rods of portaging, but it turns out that Boulder has the darkest water I've ever seen in a BWCA lake, and it's mucky and shallow, so I had to go without.

Meat was interesting because of the low water level on the east side of the campsite. I didn't like the look of Hassel very much, it was surrounded by flat land and strangely rocky shores. The only lake we didn't do in that area was Glimmer.

If I were doing it again, I think I'd still go all the way around the loop, and still go out to Boulder just to see it, but Battle was the best of the lakes. If you come down from Crab, the Crab-Clark portage is the steepest I can remember in that part of the park. On both ends there is a significant climb right near the water. There is also a burn scar across the portage, which might leave you dodging blowdowns if you have a storm (that's what happened to us).

Camped on Hassel lake one night, with Jerry aka OneMatch. The site was small and looked like it hadn’t been used in a long time. After Jerry went to sleep in his hammock and I sat by the fire for a while, I was about ready to head back to my tent. From within fifty yard came a couple of loud, prolonged howls/snarls/howls. Other side of my tent. I decided to hang out by the fire just a little longer.

That Lunetta to Hassel portage was a tough one. We were tired, and Jerry fell asleep so quickly/deeply that he never heard the wolves.

We took a loop trip through these lakes about ten years ago. It wasn't the most scenic experience and I can't recommend it. I believe it was an area where the last logging happened in the Boundary Waters, there's a lot of newer forest and the shorelines are pretty featureless.