Hi Everyone,

Planning a 5 day trip starting at Wood Lake with one zero mileage day. Want to gut-check how doable this is. We're a group of 5 (3 of us have done a BWCA trip before and 2 have not but are experienced backpackers/campers). Hoping to pack well enough to make single portages doable, but have also taken into account double portage mileage/time. Portage Mileage is based on single portages but know that it's 3x if double portaging.

Day 1: Enter Wood Lake via portage ~180-220 rods (Some spots say 180 rods, some say 220). Paddle through Wood & Hula, camp on Good Lake. Roughly 3.5 miles of paddling, 1.5 miles of portaging.
Day 2: Paddle/Portage through Indiana, Basswood, Wind, Moose up through Newfoundland Lake to camp on Splash Lake or Ensign. Roughly 10 miles of paddling and 1.5 miles of portaging.
Day 3: Paddle/Portage through Ensign, Ashigan, Gibson, Cattyman, and Jordan lakes. Camp 2 nights on Jordan. Roughly 6.5 miles of paddling and 1 mile of portaging.
Day 4: Basecamp & exploration day.
Day 5: Paddle/Portage through Cattyman, Adventure, Jitterbug, Ahsub, Disappointment, to Snowbank exit. Roughly 7.5 miles paddling and 1 mile of portaging.

What you have does look doable, but I think some of the numbers are off in sections so you may want to assess how far you can get in a day and try to balance them out (unless you are trying to be on specific lakes). Highly recommend single portaging if you can do it. Also plan to be flexible. No guarantee that your planned campsites are available and also may need to cut days short due to wind (you'll be on some big lakes). The earlier you can be on the water each day, the better the wind should be.

I've not done the west side of your planned route. I had a Wood Lake permit several years ago, but we canceled and got a Saganaga permit due to the fire closures. I've done part of your eastern route, we did a loop from Lake One to Snowbank (August 2019). Last day was Ima to Snowbank through Disappointment. Day trip from Ima to Gibson.

1) I'd push to Basswood on the first day. Unless you have a specific desire to go to Indiana, I'd take the portage from Good directly to Basswood regardless of where you camp (those Indiana portages look "robust"). Guessing you don't want to stay on portion of Basswood that has motors? You could try for one of the campsites north of Washington Island where motors aren't allowed. Would be about 9 total miles. If you don't mind the motors, you can try for some of the island sites (1636 and 1669). That would be about 7.5 mile.

2) I'm computing more like 16 miles to get from Good Lake to camp 1264 on Ensign. That's a long day. Might want to plan on camp 1291 on Sucker (that's 12 miles, still a good haul). This would make me lean towards getting to Basswood on first day.

3) If you are on 1291, it's 9.5 miles to Jordan, so this is a solid day. I like Jordan when we went there on day trip and on the trip out. Cattyman Falls is a good lunch spot.

4) Lots to explore in this area. There are pictographs between Jordan and Ima.

5) I definitely recommend your route out. We had a head wind going through Disappointment that was real rough but I can't image what it would have been like going across Snowbank from the North.


Overall looks like a great trip! This year (early Sept) we are getting a tow from Moose up to Sucker and then going to Kekekabic. Probably do 2 nights there and then two nights somewhere between Kek and Ensign. Let me know how your trip through Ensign goes.

Thanks for the reply! I've added a pic of the route. The paddle plan has that second day from Good to Splash at the 10 miles paddle + 1.5 miles portage, but I'll do some triple checking on that piece. The plan is definitely to keep it flexible - we've got a couple different iterations of the route based on how we're feeling/how far we make it on day 1!

Curious how long the trip out from Ima to Snowbank took when you did it. Considering a shift to make a shorter last day, but may be a game-time decision.

Good to know about the pictographs! I didn't realize there were some in that area. That'll be a fun addition to the sites.

Thanks again!

Ah, I missed that you are going to cut through Wind. Yeah, your estimate is good then (I was thinking you wanted to stay on Basswood all the way around).

We did Ima (camp 1194) to Snowbank (the public access) in 3.5 hours, was just over 10 miles.

Perfect - thank you for sharing your thoughts/experience! Enjoy your sept trip!