Greetings from a new member I grew up with a cabin on Sandpoint lake in Minnesota. My father and I took several trips into western Quetico. We traveled and fished and Omeme and Bearpelt on six different occasions. We have entered that area up the Bearpelt Creek and down from Badwater.

I am planning a trip for next summer with my son and I am wondering what does the Bearpelt Creek and Bearpelt Lake look like. Is it still possible?

Thanks for any recent feedback you can offer.

Scott


PS here is a picture from one of our trips in the 70s

Been to Omeme from Badwater a few years ago...no problem and one of my favorite days in the Q. I have heard but cannot confirm that Bearpelt Creek was dried up a few years back. I think your best bet is to call the Q park office for info. They are always friendly and helpful. Good luck. --Goose

PS: please post of you find out!

I will let you know what I find out.

What is the general concensous about a late May visit?

My son get out of school late may and I was planning on going right up, before his summer job starts. Thinking week before memorial day.

I understand it can be very cold, how about fishing?

Most of my 1970-80 trips where in June and July if I recall correctly

Thanks!

I was up there 3 years ago, and Bearpelt creek was dried up at that time. Maybe the DNR fixed the problem but I have not heard anything about it .

quote walllee: "Maybe the DNR fixed the problem but I have not heard anything about it."

Lee, how would the DNR (actually the MNR) help with water levels in Bearpelt Creek?

I tried to get into Omeme/Cub/Bearpelt from Badwater last year in August. Was not successful at all and gave up. And let's just say I was "highly motivated" to get to Omeme.

There are several critical water levels controlled by beaver dams, and they have changed significantly in the last 3 years.

Coming from Badwater, the first critical dam is at the transition from Badwater into the 20 acre marsh where the first large rock "pass" is located. Beavers have essentially built a large dam at Badwater that prevents all water from flowing from Badwater into this (previous) marsh area. For 15 years we paddled through this marsh area in shallow winding channels. Now it is all dry land and very treacherous as it is small hillocks of grass and deep moose tracks in waist high weeds/grass - perfect for turning an ankle or wrenching a knee. We even abandoned it as a day trip with no camping gear - let alone carrying in "heavy' to set up base camp.

Once beyond the marsh, you pull over a huge 20 plus foot beaver dam down into "the pond" of 50 yard diameter and then take a 200 yard flat portage through the old logging yard where lots of metal logging relics are strewn. After the yard, once again a critical beaver dam holds water to allow a 300 yard paddle through narrow winding channels to get within walking distance to the Omeme log flume. This area after the yard may have become not paddle-able in recent couple of years. Not sure as we have not made it that far. It was getting very shallow 3 years ago - but we made it.

With essentially no water flowing from Badwater into this general area, I am not sure this overall path is viable unless water is very high or the dams have been compromised.

I have begun contemplating a "bushwhack" path to Omeme from the Badwater potage area. There is a small stream that is on the far southwest end of Badwater that flows directly toward Omeme. By Google estimates, it looks like about a quarter mile length to reach the northeast corner of Omeme. I have not scouted the path and would definitely not attempt without a GPS and an all adult party.

Just may be the only way to get there until the beavers give back my favorite lake.

Old Hoosier

I was in Omeme about five years ago and tried to get into Bear Pelt. There was absolutely no water in the creek. I can't believe it would have changed that much now.

I went down Bear Pelt Creek about 25 years ago without significant problems. I have been told by my outfitter that it is practically impossible now.

Sorry I don't have more current information.

My information would be 10 years old but it corresponds with Old Hoosier. We got to the second damn and then turned out around. In high school in the late 90's we paddled down there without any real issue. Apparently a beaver damn let go sometime in the early 2000s changing the area rather significantly.

quote Jackfish: "

quote walllee: "Maybe the DNR fixed the problem but I have not heard anything about it."

Lee, how would the DNR (actually the MNR) help with water levels in Bearpelt Creek?"

Thought they may play with the beaver dams a little.

Forgot to mention - the creek has been dry for many years. Maybe 8 or 10 years or so. We walked it for a good distance and gave up. Absolutely no water flowing at the time.

Good news - you can get from Omeme to Bearpelt by a small land bridge on the west side of Omeme. We walked it and it was flat and very doable. Maybe 200 yards. You can see the Bearpelt open sky from Omeme shore. And the woods in that area (was) is not thick at all.

The real problem is just getting to Omeme.

Old Hoosier.

Hi y'all
Thanks for the feedback. My real question is about coming up the bearpelt creek from Wolsey?

In the 1970-1980s we could paddle the whole way pulling over some dams.

I was going to reach out to mnr as well

Thanks!

This may help.

quote Sloanstavern: "
This may help."

LOL... a brutal 3-mile portage. I think the key word is "may". :)

Had a very nice talk with two young ladies at the park office. They shared that they believe that bear pelt Creek is passable. However they informed me that passage from Cub to bearpelt is not advised.

Update. The park personnel were nice enough to call back and correct there earlier comment. It appears they cannot confirm Bearpelt Creek is OK for travel.

quote Jackfish: "

quote Sloanstavern: "
This may help."

LOL... a brutal 3-mile portage. I think the key word is "may". :)"

This trip was a 2-fer! Not only the three mile portage, but the outfitter left us with 19' sport boats (like a chubby 19' canoe).

The trip was great but that haul dang near killed us!

Update. I just can't wait till next summer I am going to make a quick trip up in September and do some scouting I will report back what I find. Cheers

Sad to hear Old Hoosier's report from 2014. Our 2010 day trip from Badwater to Omeme using the great info OH provided me on advance is still one of our favorite days in the Q. Sounds like a crew needs to do some work there! (dynamite?) Things always change though and some day those dams may be gone... --Goose

Goose,

My goal is to get to Omeme/Cub/Bearpelt again soon, but not likely this year. Am heading elsewhere - either in the Q or maybe Wabakimi.

Goal is to get back to Omeme area next year and scout out the best way based on what the beavers have changed or find a new route across land from the west end of Badwater.

Will let you know how it goes.

Old Hoosier

Copy,
I am going in this sept for some recon.
Will enter at beaver house, to bad water .
If I can will go into Omeme an bearpelt if possible.

Will be a solo packing very light and trying one of the solo Kevlar canoes ( speced at 32 lbs!)

Will post trip repot and picks as soon as I get out

Scott

I'm sorry to hear these lakes are no longer accessible.

The last time I was on Omeme was a few years ago, and we found a baggie full of marijuana at the campsite on the north shore of Omeme. I left it there...so maybe that'll provide someone with even *more* motivation to make it to this amazing lake.

Old Hoosier,

Sounds good. I plan on a solo in June 2016 on the South side, but might be able to get my soninlaw to do Badwater again next September.

--Goose

quote carmike: "I'm sorry to hear these lakes are no longer accessible.


The last time I was on Omeme was a few years ago, and we found a baggie full of marijuana at the campsite on the north shore of Omeme. I left it there...so maybe that'll provide someone with even *more* motivation to make it to this amazing lake. "

Walleye in Omeme are the only attraction I need!

Goose - completely agree.

Walleye are my only addiction! But I "got it real bad" as they say.

Old Hoosier

Yeah, the same for me, though I suspect there might be a few lurking around who'd appreciate it more than I--or we. :)

Well I was able to complete my scouting trip the week before Labor Day. I picked up my permits and canoe and was on the beaver house trail by 11 AM. I made it to the bad water portage by 3 PM. Was on bad water by 5 PM. I took a chance and looked for the Portage from bad water to Omeme Located on the north western tip of bad water lake and found it. It was poorly marked but rather good condition. It was more of a game trail but passable. I was on omeme by 7 PM. The water level was good but it was so hot the fishing was poor. They only bite an hour before sunrise and right at sunset. The campsite on the north side of the lake was in very good condition and appeared well used. One day I scouted the South Bend and the north end and found the creeks to be impassable. My son and I are going back up next May and we will scout the creeks better.

Here are some more pictures from the trip all from Omeme

Sloanstavern that sounds great. Can you sketch on a map or aerial approximately where the "portage" trail is located, or at least indicate where it starts and ends? --Goose

I will try, if you go to Quetico100 web site and look at the portage route map ( the full size one) and zoom in it is marked pretty accurately.
It is 1/3 mile with modest elevation change.

It begins at the exact western most tip of badwater lake

Sloanstavern,

Excellent info. Appreciate the report. You may be the first to do this particular portage. At least I have never heard of others going in this way.

Old Hoosier

My wife and I did Wolseley to Badwater in early August of this year. I made the mistake of not searching out trip reports before we did this. We left Wolseley after breakfast and got to Bearpelt/West Cub so late in the day that we ate lunch food for supper and fell into the tent. We pressed on to Badwater the following day and were so depleted after THAT half day that we took the first site we could find and recharged ourselves before moving on east toward Sturgeon the next day.

The portage out of Wolseley was easy to find. We failed to find the indicated long portage in the middle and humped it up the creek bed and dry waterfall. We assumed that the next portage that we DID find was the final one before Bearpelt/West Cub. Wrong. It WAS a relatively worn path but turned out to not be that last portage. We still had a significant ways to go before we actually came to the last walk of the day.

I've had some tough days in Quetico in the past 35 years but nothing has ever been as miserable as those two days. We were so beat-up and tired from that first day that I'm sure it slowed our progress from there through Omeme and on to Badwater.

(The only other bad part of the route on to Sturgeon was the non-paddlable creek from Little Pine to Trail. That was a long walk across a floating bog instead.)

Canoester, when you got to Badwater, which campsite did you use? See anyone else there?

quote Jackfish: "Canoester, when you got to Badwater, which campsite did you use? See anyone else there?"

We entered Badwater via the route that all the standard maps would suggest, i.e. we did not do the portage shown earlier in this thread.

We took the high campsite on the north side of the lake, just about in the middle (W-E). Straight ahead as we came out the bay we entered from. Big rock, heavily used site. Only went east from there, but the site we used was far better than the ones we passed in the morning.

Saw no one from Lac la Croix to Your and then again no one until Bentpine Creek.

Canoester

Hats off to you-my friend. That is one tough route. Can't imagine trying to do that route - let alone with my wife!

Do you guys run marathons for fun and relaxation? :)

How long (days) was your trip? You mentioned Wolseley and Sturgeon. Was that the extent?

Old Hoosier

Random question... how does one promounce "Omeme"? Is it Oh-may-may? or Oh-meem?

quote DancesWithTrees: "Random question... how does one promounce "Omeme"? Is it Oh-may-may? or Oh-meem?
"

Or is it oh-mee-mee?!

quote Old Hoosier: "Canoester

Hats off to you-my friend. That is one tough route. Can't imagine trying to do that route - let alone with my wife!

Do you guys run marathons for fun and relaxation? :)

How long (days) was your trip? You mentioned Wolseley and Sturgeon. Was that the extent?

Old Hoosier"

Sounds like I wouldn't want to do it with your wife either! ;-) Mine kept me going when I might have just curled up and laid down in the bog.

Neither one of us are in a hurry to go back there. Think I'd do the Cache Lake portages along with the Death March Portages all in the same trip (maybe throw in Memory Lane too) before revisiting Bearpelt Creek. (Which we no-so-kindly came up with a new name for...)

Our trip was 13 days. Two leisurely days on LLC before picking up the Quetico permit. The Bearpelt episode caused us to skip a planned night on Bentpine and push on to Sturgeon. Intent was to split off from the Maligne River after Tanner and go down through Minn, McAree, Wickstead, Darkwater, Argo, etc. and work our way back through Agnes and Nina Moose.

We had another thing come up that caused us to cut things short and take the Maligne all the way down and come out at a very unaggressive/leisurely pace.

Mileage-wise, actually one of our shorter trips. I guess we like to paddle.

And no, no marathons. There has to be someone chasing me for me to run.

Sloanstavern: You said "It was poorly marked but rather good condition. It was more of a game trail but passable." After looking at the PDF (which does not support zooming very well) it "appears" that the portage is either marked "not maintained yet" or "not maintained in 2014." I'm guessing it's the former, since in the past it wasn't needed when you could make it mostly by water. Your description would be fitting for most unmaintained portages, and I would suggest that you were lucky there weren't downed trees over the trail. Would like to add my thanks for your information! I would really like to try the Omeme walleyes one more time. --Goose

Goose; I think it simply has not been maintained recently. There was light overgrowth but no downed trees and the trail was well worn, most likely by animals. I think it was just lock but no large trees fell on the trail. There was no sign of human cleanup to be seen. Omeme is really no different than the hundreds of beautiful lakes in quetico, and it is now a one way trip.

It means a lot to me because of the many trips there with my father in the 70's.

Btw, I have always pronounced it oh-me-me

This portage is also shown at the PP website, which shows the other way (two portages on the creek) as well. PP has it as 90 rods in length, 28 meters of climbing/descending, and a "hilliness" rating of 28 (very low). I didn't realize when I first looked at Sloantavern's image (which is "upside-down" -- my excuse) that the portage to Omeme was in the little cove just off the portage from Quetico, so that there is virtually no paddling on Badwater if going straight to Omeme.

Here's a screenshot from PP:


--Goose