So, thinking about a pseudo-BW trip this mid-May to Island River Lake just north of Comfort lake from which we can do day trips down the river into the BW, check out the pictographs, etc. Can't seem to find any usable recent info on the sites on either Comfort or Island R lakes. Anyone been through there recently? Status/quality of the sites? Also hoping to target some walleye on the river. Reports or suggestions?

There are 3 sites between the Tomahawk Road and Comfort Lake. If you head south from the Tomahawk Road the first portage is where the first site is. This is the best of the three. The second sight is a rehab site after the Pagami Fire, and the third site down the river is where the next portage is. It's a fair site and you could possibly have people portaging through your site. I believe there is one more site before you reach Comfort, but it was burning during the fire and I don't think it was rehabbed. Definitely good northern and walleye fishing on the river.

eg nailed it pretty good. The first site after the portage is real nice, I stayed there years ago. and parked at the canoe carry down off Forest Road 377. Only a small portion of the river between Comfort Lake and the RR bridge off the Tomahawk road is in the BWCA. As far as I understand it, you do not need a permit to canoe through this small area of the BW, however you can get a day use permit at the Island River parking lot. I canoed the entire length between Comfort Lake and the Island River entry point 34 in 2014. I believe the campsite on Comfort Lake was open and not burned over from the Pagami Fire, I saw the picnic table was still there. The middle campsite was filled up with tents, tarps, coolers and lots of people and stuff. I portaged right through their camp, the people had a yard sale going on and it felt a little weird stepping around their coolers on the portage.

Remember you can dispersed camp along that river in any area that is outside the BWCA, but it did not look like it would be very fun since it was pretty grown over.

I'll add if launching from Comfort Lake. People previoulsy would camp right at the top of the hill off the parking lot (carry down to comfort). It's fairly open there and it was all burned in the pagami creek fire. There is a better user maintained site campsite accessible by canoe or road further east from there along the wide portion of Island River.

The campsite on the western side of the wide spot in the island river used to be decent...it didn't get burned, but its a disaster right now. Fire grate needs to be moved, someone cut down a bunch of trees with a chainsaw and they're just laying around. Not really a place to set up a tent at this point. Heading down stream from Comfort. There's a few campsites still along the river between there and the tomahawk as others have mentioned. Some are burned, some aren't. Theone mentioned as the nicest is for sure the nicest. My only complaints about it - are it's line of sight to the road and the portage goes right through it.

I've thought about trying to rehab/clean up that sight on the island river near comfort...but just haven't gotten to it. Next time i'm in the neighborhood, I plan to look to see if I think it's even possible.

Timer/Frear would also be another area for a psuedo BW trip.

I camped at Section 29 Lake campground, and drove to Comfort Lake from there
Sec 29 Lake is a nice place to paddle.

“Bring enough (rod).”

Island River Lake Survey Report

And this:

I called the Tofte Ranger station about this area a few weeks ago and was told that the culvert closest to the carry down to Comfort Lake was still not repaired but was close enough to portage from the washout to the lake, Nothing was said about the difficulty of crossing the washout.