Hello,

For those familiar, I'm curious how much traffic the lakes outside the wilderness border around Ely see, particularly in May? I already have two trips to BWCA planned this year and I was hoping to go up next Saturday just a for a single a night of camping. I was thinking about Nels Lake, or Low/Bass/High lakes? It's fishing opener so I guess I'm not sure if these are popular fishing lakes this early on.

Haven't ruled out some of the lakes in the Tofte district just South of the wilderness area either. Just trying to get out for one night, I need a mental health getaway.

Crescent lake southeast of Baker EP has been quiet the times I've been there. Tofte region. I would think in May it would be quite slow.

okinaw55: "Crescent lake southeast of Baker EP has been quiet the times I've been there. Tofte region. I would think in May it would be quite slow."

That's just the campground only though right? I dont think there are any backcountry sites on Crescent are there? I'm hoping for a paddle-in site for a little more seclusion.

Low Lake will most likely have some boat traffic. Bass Lake will probably have zero boats, but there will be a lot of hikers on the trail. High Lake will probably have zero traffic as well. I’ve fished all of these lakes on opener one time or another and I’m usually the only out there.

There are 2 nice sites (non-bwca) on Homer, at least 1 on Lichen, and options on Crescent away from the campground. I have found that in many areas of the country, including the SNF, there are quiet areas just outside wilderness boundaries. Perhaps they see less use because everyone is heading in beyond the boundary. I do a trip each year in late August to the fringes of the bwca and find much solitude, fish, and site availibility.

KarlK: "There are 2 nice sites (non-bwca) on Homer, at least 1 on Lichen, and options on Crescent away from the campground. I have found that in many areas of the country, including the SNF, there are quiet areas just outside wilderness boundaries. Perhaps they see less use because everyone is heading in beyond the boundary. I do a trip each year in late August to the fringes of the bwca and find much solitude, fish, and site availibility. "

I'll keep those options in mind, it would be easier access for me to be in the Tofte area rather than Ely.

I'm also keeping my eye on Slim Lake entry and might just go in there for a night if it's looking like it will be wide open.

T-Lake by Isabella should give you some solitude.

AlexanderSupertramp: "

okinaw55: "Crescent lake southeast of Baker EP has been quiet the times I've been there. Tofte region. I would think in May it would be quite slow."

That's just the campground only though right? I dont think there are any backcountry sites on Crescent are there? I'm hoping for a paddle-in site for a little more seclusion."

There are three backcountry camp sites on Crescent. 2 look really nice and may be used, but the third one on the west shore looked like a good site except for the tough landing, but I'm not as agile as I used to be many years ago!
I have a superior national forest map, which shows the campsites. 1 is a forest service site, I'm not sure what the other two are, but both appear to be on public SNF land. So if you want to be brave, you could always do dispersed camping on the lake if you can find a decent spot - just remember "leave no trace"

Hogback Lake Campground will be empty and has a couple of canoe-in sites: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/superior/recreation/recarea/?recid=40301&actid=29

The Timber-Frear Canoe Route has a couple of sites: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/superior/recreation/recarea/?recid=75312

Twin Lakes Canoe Route has a couple of spots too: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/superior/recarea/?recid=75311

And finally, Ball Club Lake has one site on it I have always been meaning to check out to see how good/crappy it is. If you go to this one, let me know how it is, will ya? Thanks. https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/lake.html?id=16018200

The two sites on Homer are both nice. The crescent site on the western shore is pretty horrible, can't say about the island sites.

Not sure if this is accessible for you but Lake Jeanette campground is at the far western end of the Echo Trail from Ely but can also be accessed from Hwy 53 in the Orr area and offers several (like 6 or 7) remote campsites that you access from the boat launch in the campground. I have read reviews of some of them and they sound pretty nice. It's certainly a beautiful lake.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/superior/recarea/?recid=37137


Good Luck, hope you find something nice.

Love all the insight here. I think I need to pick up a nice NFS map by the sounds of it. didn't realize there were this many BC options outside the wilderness border.

Leaning towards Timber-Frear (thanks LindenTree for that trip report back in 2019!).

If it's busy then I'll keep driving along to backup options.

Try Fenske it is a few miles up the Echo Trail. A string of small lakes with short portages. Little Sletten, Sletten, Tee, Grassy. Grassy can have some nice Crappies.

Lots of forest service back country sites - they can be found on the SNF website and additionally, lots of user created and maintained sites on the various lakes. For a weekend like fishing opener...it will be busier than most. In years past on opener i've had a little trouble finding a site and would go up earlier on friday.

I usually just had three or four spots in mind and if someone was at the first lake, i moved to the next.

If you have any specific lakes in mind, feel free to e-mail me. I don't know the Ely area as well as Brimson, Isabella, Tofte and surrounding areas.

AlexanderSupertramp: "Love all the insight here. I think I need to pick up a nice NFS map by the sounds of it. didn't realize there were this many BC options outside the wilderness border.


Leaning towards Timber-Frear (thanks LindenTree for that trip report back in 2019!).


If it's busy then I'll keep driving along to backup options. "

A buddy of mine went to the Timber Frear lakes last year. He took one look at the full parking lot and went to T-Lake instead. He did not see anyone on the whole lake for the entire weekend. You have to get a Superior NF map, or it is like flying blind.

Back country camping in the Superior NF non BWCA. Note, there are more camping sites with fire grates than what shown on this link.

LindenTree: "

AlexanderSupertramp: "Love all the insight here. I think I need to pick up a nice NFS map by the sounds of it. didn't realize there were this many BC options outside the wilderness border.



Leaning towards Timber-Frear (thanks LindenTree for that trip report back in 2019!).



If it's busy then I'll keep driving along to backup options. "

A buddy of mine went to the Timber Frear lakes last year. He took one look at the full parking lot and went to T-Lake instead. He did not see anyone on the whole lake for the entire weekend. You have to get a Superior NF map, or it is like flying blind.


Back country camping in the Superior NF non BWCA. Note, there are more camping sites with fire grates than what shown on this link. "

Yikes. I went and picked up Mckenzie SNF map 203 over lunch today which covers T-Lake and Windy Lake as well. I think I'll skip Timber Frear this go around and go check out Windy Lake first, if there's cars there then I'll go down to the T-Lake pull off. WIndy Lake I guess is a good Walleye lake, so with it being opener I can imagine there could be some folks there. I thought there were only 2 sites on T, but it looks like there are 3. Could be a safe bet that one will be open and it doesn't look like a very good fishing lake, which is ok with me because I'm not really going to fish. At least this way I wont have to make the 40 minute dirt road driver from the Timber/Frear over to T/Windy, which is hilarious since they are 2.5 miles apart as the crow flies.

Absolutely pick yourself up a Superior NF map. They are available at the ranger stations, or you can order one at the USGS Map Store. Great for planning these sorts of trips, and just for looking at in the winter to dream up new places to explore. The maps are now printed on waterproof paper like Fisher/McKenzie maps are.
USGS Map Store

gotwins: "Absolutely pick yourself up a Superior NF map. They are available at the ranger stations, or you can order one at the USGS Map Store. Great for planning these sorts of trips, and just for looking at in the winter to dream up new places to explore. The maps are now printed on waterproof paper like Fisher/McKenzie maps are.
USGS Map Store "

I picked up map 203 a couple hours ago, didn't realize these were $12 a pop or I would have got them all in one go today.

AlexanderSupertramp: "

gotwins: "Absolutely pick yourself up a Superior NF map. They are available at the ranger stations, or you can order one at the USGS Map Store. Great for planning these sorts of trips, and just for looking at in the winter to dream up new places to explore. The maps are now printed on waterproof paper like Fisher/McKenzie maps are.
USGS Map Store "

I picked up map 203 a couple hours ago, didn't realize these were $12 a pop or I would have got them all in one go today."

You are half way there now, the other half is exploring these areas. (Believe me it is a blast) Here is a trick I used when working for the Superior NF and doing fire patrols.

Open your map and check out the canoe carry down areas outside the wilderness, many of these areas already have dispersed camping sites near those canoe carry down areas. Dragon Lake off the Banadad trail north of Hwy 1 and McDougal Lake is a nice sweet spot I have known about for years. It has a fire ring, picnic table, outhouse.

Just saw this thread as I was researching some new areas to explore in SNF. Just ordered the map. Any pointers on where to start looking for some of the lakes with established dispersed campsites? There are often times that I come up with an open weekend or 3 day window. Would be great to be able to just tuck into a quiet spot even if all BWCA permits are spoken for.

I like Lichen and Canal Lake for these kind of quick trips, in the Tofte area. The USFS website has a bunch of great resources about the backcountry sites all around the SNF if you know how to find them.
This page has a few hard-to-find pdfs but the real money is at the site that LindenTree posted above.

This is a thorough and exhaustive list in Superior National Forest of the rustic camping options as well as the Backcountry (paddle to or hike to) campsites in the forest. Literally dozens of options. Narrow it down to a few and do some more specific research.

Rustic camping and backcountry campsites

Homer Lake has two really nice campsites outside of the BWCA. The down side is if they are full you will have to paddle back to your car unless you have a BWCA permit.

Lake Jeanette has 5 backcountry campsites on a beautiful lake as well as a nice campground on the shore. Gorgeous BWCA like lake.

Birch Lake campground is very nice and on a beautiful lake just outside of the BWCA. But it also has 14 backcountry campsites and aside from an occasional motorboat, you would probably feel like you were in the BWCA.

The Timber/Frear area has a number of backcountry campsites that are similar to a BWCA experience without any permit required.

good luck, too many places to explore and not enough time:)

Oops

Thanks! I ordered the USGS map so I'll start making some more exploratory forays as time allows.

One of my favorite lake campgrounds on the Gunflint trail is Flour Lake. It borders the BW and has campsites right on the water. May fill up easily but nicely positioned for numerous day trips.

Anyone ever been to or know anything about Little Snow? Looks like a cool adventure to get in there and quite a few walleyes.