I've always been intrigued by the PMAs in the BWCA. Questions like... why did the NFS stop the maintaining of portages and campsites in them, what time frame did they start shutting these areas down, were they just plain old less desirable areas? Kinda seems to me more maintained area which would've included the now PMA's may have eased the crowding during the pandemic? Any info would be great? I've done many trips into the BWCA, but they all were pretty vanilla compared to some of the PMA Trip Reports I've read.

They were created to allow some deeper wilderness experiences within the BWCAW. They did seem to select some less traveled areas. I don't know if they phased in the non-maintenance but I believe they became an official option in 1989, I believe. They only make up 11% of the total land area and the old maintained parts and campsites were an even smaller percentage. I doubt they would have made any difference in the crowds during the pandemic. Other than Sundial (Sunday Lake area), PMA travel is definitely far from vanilla.

You asked a good question which feeds into one of the biggest issues in BWCA traffic: how to disperse visitors? Even if the PMA routes existed as maintained routes, would people willingly use them? Most BWCA visitors, if they are travelling past the entry point lake, are prone to taking the easiest path which means fewer or shorter portages. They may divert from that path in search of really special places (say, Johnson Falls for instance) or great fishing. The PMAs squarely meet none of that criteria. They rarely have great fishing and almost never have high caliber scenery in comparison to other areas. At the end of the day, even if a PMA route was left maintained, it wouldn't help with traffic unless it met one of those aforementioned criteria or if regulations forced visitors that way (something many of us would detest the USFS doing) since that would mean a major change in the rule book.

For example, one of the few larger routes closed with the PMA was the Hope Chain. At one time, this had a variety of campsites and could be used as a through way to Fishdance or even Basketong. On paper, this is a very useful route as it would cut off major mileage to Kawishiwi Lake and provide a useful loop option for visiting Fishdance from the numbers chain without repeating a bunch of territory. However, this route would have major portaging, something most people actively avoid. At the end of the day, use by visitors drives maintenance and that route would never see high traffic. 99.9% of visitors would choose heading through Insula/Alice instead of the long and tedious Hope Chain. From a wilderness management perspective then, the routes closed for the PMA were low-priority uses of resources that could likely be better used elsewhere.

There are plenty of examples in currently maintained stretches of the BWCA which illustrate this principal well. Grandpa Lake is quite close to the entry but receives only a fraction of a percentage of the visitors who would rather travel through the well-trodden, short portage routes instead. The Gijikiki area or the Mechanic Chain (out of Brule) get sparse visitation because they are tough going and there is easy, scenic destinations nearby which have most of the visitors. The majority of Hog Creek permit holders base camp at Perent rather than take the portage-heavy river. There are plenty of examples. Difficult routes without big ticket reasons to visit are unattractive to the majority of BWCA visitors and thus don't help with dispersal. On the flip side, they do provide quieter areas for those of us looking to avoid traffic!

I’ve been to a few of the PMA’s and they are great. They are not managed like other areas in the BWCA. No idea when they were changed to PMAs. There is no fire grates, no thunder boxes, no tent pads. Portages are not maintained. I got my canoe stuck in trees on one portage. Could not move forward, could not move back. But the reward was Brook Trout and the area all to ourselves.

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