I have an entry permit for 70 - North Fowl Lake. Is parking for that the same as for 68 and 69? It was the only permit available I could get for my time. I don't want to go to Fowl lake. Does it make any difference that I put in at 70 and go west rather than east?

Yes the parking is the same. But there are different entry points in the same location for a reason.

North Fowl Lake is usually being used to do a Westbound border route and doesn't easily connect to the other lakes in that unit, it is independent of the others by design. You can go West through Moose and Mountain.

While you technically have a reason to be in John Lake because you need to go through it to get to North Fowl, should a ranger catch you in Pine Lake or East/West Pike Lake on the same day as your permit entry date, they're going to know you went the other way and can ticket you (unless you can paddle 25+ miles in a day). In theory, you could be in McFarland because it's not in the BWCA. Entry point hopping is generally frowned upon unless some very extreme circumstances were at play, otherwise it's a slippery slope if everyone starts doing it because they dont like the permit they got.

With that being said, I'm not telling you what you should do, use that information and make your own decision.

For EP 70 you do park in the same spot as 68 and 69, but your permit wont be valid unless you paddle the Royal River and travel into North Fowl. When you put in on Little John, you haven’t yet entered the BWCA. (The BWCA boundary is at John Lake.) For EP 70, you can travel through John Lake to access the Royal River to get to North Fowl, but you can’t stay your first night on John Lake, or travel to west across John to the Pikes and beyond.

No one wants to stay on North Fowl itself, but portage into Moose Lake and you will have a lovely time. Most of the time I pass through Moose, no one is around. So not much work to be away from crowds. If you want to make a loop, continue into Mountain and then cut into Clearwater before heading back east.

But as people said, please don't abuse the system and go directly into Pine or others. Those lakes are already hard to find a campsite and it just makes it worse when people abuse the system just because they figure they won't get caught.

I've camped on north fowl, it's not bad. the royal river is a beautiful paddle. you probably won't see many people.

what is your main concern with using this permit? where did you want to go but there was no permit?

the best thing for you to do is keep looking at the permit system daily for cancellations. there is a cancellation notification button somewhere.