Hi all... Hoping to just know quick if I'm reasonable, ambitious, or insane. My brother and I are hoping to head into the BWCA at the end of May - probably a four or five-day trip. This will be his first time up there; I've been twice before, but never done any route planning. Both of us are/were Boy Scouts, so we have plenty of experience camping and we're both fit.

Currently, I'm eyeballing Snowbank for an entry point - my second trip started there and I remember a little of the area. Depending on how long we go for/permit availability, I'm thinking either Monday or Thursday/Friday beforehand to try and cut the crowds.

My real question is the rest of the trip. We both like the idea of a full loop, instead of going in and out the same way, so I've got two potential plans and I can't figure out if 1 is too easy or 2 is too hard. 1) - go through Parent/Disappointment, camp on Ahsub, probably head over to Ima to spend more time up there, then go back through to Boot and spend a day on the longer portage and getting back across Snowbank to the entry point again. Or, 2) push to Jordan on the first day (I saw someone on here say they took a scout group that far in a day, which gives me hope), then up to Kekekabic, then over through Vera and Ensign and down to Boot and out the same.

I don't remember very well the scale we covered on my first two trips, so I'm not exactly sure how well we'd be looking at doing. Being brothers, though, we certainly wouldn't be bothered by a little personal intrusion on packs, so I'd hope we could get by with a single canoe and two or three packs (two if I can sling it) and cut down on portage time. plan 2 still seems a bit ambitious, though... What do you guys think?

Also any advice on timing for the beginning/end of the trip would be appreciated... I'd like to avoid paying for accommodations in Ely if I can. We have somewhere we can stay near Virginia, so overnight isn't impossible but I'll need to know ahead of time.

Me and my friend went on our first trip to the BWCA last June with an ambitious route and met all of our goals. We're both mid 40s and, despite not being in great shape, have been hiking, backcountry camping and river paddling for pretty much our entire lives. We put in on Snowbank around 6:30am and had camp set up on Ima, northeast part of the lake, by 4ish pm. We took it kinda slow, as he is really into fishing and I had no problem soaking in the scenery along the way, and double portaged. We took the Snowbank-Dissapointment portage, and didn't see Parent, so we were on Ahsub hours before noon and had lunch on Cattyman after exploring the falls. Jordan is a pretty lake and if our route hadn't been as aggressive we might have camped there our first night.

If you're reasonably fit and prepared, and you seem to be both, you should have no problem making it to Jordan from EP27 in a day. Heck, you'll have plenty of time and more to explore Jordan once you've claimed a site.

Keep in mind from fishing opener thru the end of May can be a zoo going out of Snowbank with all the fishermen hitting Dissapointment, Ima, and Thomas, so you can expect full campsites and busy portages..

For a comparison trip, my wife and I, along with a nephew and his buddy entered at Moose lake and paddled the whole way, no boat tow. We camped that afternoon at Jordan. My wife and I were 71, the nephew and his buddy are in their late 50's. Our backup plan if all the campsites on Jordan were take was to push on to Ima and we could have done that. The route through Snowbank is a little shorter but you have the chance that the big open water of Snowbank could be rough.

Snowbank can be scary when the wind is up! The earlier in the day you can cross that lake, the better. There's a reason RMinMN is paddling all the way around from Moose. If you plan on exiting via Snowbank as well, that's two days that you're depending on the wind to be down. Coming from Boot also exposes you to a much larger fetch than just going from Parent or Disappointment to the EP. If it's calm on your entry day, I would 100% shoot across to Boot then and run your route backwards so that you'll have a smaller fetch to cross later when you come out of Disappointment.

Assuming you get across Snowbank, you shouldn't have any problems. The last time I was in this area we double portaged from Snowbank to Ima in a day, spent a few days on Ima (most of them in camp, wind-bound!) and then came back out the way we came in one day. I would shoot to camp on Ahsub/Jordan (nice sites), Fraser, Kekekabic and Ensign... but be flexible! Windy and rainy days will screw up your plans, as will full campsites. You'll have bigger fetches to cross on Kekekabic and Ima too, if it ends up being windy you'd probably be best off hanging around Jordan and the west end of Ima. Do not expect to stick to your plans 100%, I have rarely had that luxury up there.

Thanks, everybody! For those saying Moose Lake... Are you guys recommending going in and out through Moose and Ensign, or looping through Snowbank on one end of the trip? I hadn't considered avoiding Snowbank entirely, but I had been hoping to keep portages under 200 rods for my brother's first trip, so I hadn't wanted to take the Snowbank/Moose route.

As for wind warnings - again, thank you guys. We ran into some moderate winds on my last trip (through Snowbank), but I had forgotten and that's definitely a good reminder. I also hadn't considered keeping a backward route in mind. And Z4K - Amen to that last. I hope to have at least two backup plans, if only to calm our mother, but the same trip I just mentioned taught me that even backup plans aren't enough sometimes. That's another reason why I'm hesitant to push for an ambitious plan that fills our available time - having an extra day for something to go wrong sounds like much more peace of mind.

So, I guess a new question would be... With or without modifications to include Moose on the route, do you guys think that (given perfect circumstances) this trip could definitely be made in four days by a pair of somewhat green portagers? Because we have five days, so that would give us our cushion day.

I would recommend exiting via Moose if that is an option. There will be a lot of traffic on Moose but it will save you having to cross Snowbank on your exit day, at the expense of a couple more miles on the water. I would just hike/bike/hitchhike to get to my car from Snowbank EP at the end of the trip.

I think I'm pretty slow solo but I still aim for 10 miles per day, and I would absolutely take the trip you're planning. I would plan for:
Enter Snowbank via Disappointment, camping on Ima-Kekekabic-Carp/Ensign (Carp if Moose exit, Ensign if Snowbank exit, you won't mind that 207 rod portage after 4 days in) See how it goes! If the weather is perfect and you get an early start, push on to Thomas or Frasier on your first day. If the weather doesn't cooperate you can always just go to Ensign instead of Kek. Only you will know how you feel after the first day. There are exactly 0 ugly lakes with no fish in this area.

Hatchet is a great little lake with one nice campsite, good for moose and walleyes.
There are two cool little trout lakes off of Trader Lake.
Cattyman Falls is along the portage between Cattyman and Gibson.

Have fun! There's nothing wrong with having ambitious plans as long as you're flexible.