I am happy to say I thru-hiked the BRT with 4 other women, May 26-30.

Needless to say it was fairly brutal due to the conditions, but incredible as well. I'd do it again and hope to someday.

Short summary:

TRAIL CAMPS
Day 1 Topper Lake
Day 2 Clearwater Lake west
Day 3 Pine Lake
Day 4 Swamp River

We started at Magnetic Trailhead (west) and hiked east to the Otter Lake Rd terminus. We were dropped off early at the start by Harriet Quarles (great lady and character). If you ever need her you can look her up in Grand Marais.

I'd gotten a couple reports on partial trail conditions. One was from Heston's, who could give me info up to around Bridal Falls. Another was from a hiker who'd said he'd done 55 miles - but all I had to go on was that it was slow and doable. The last was from Ed Solstad who had bits of info on the eastern end. Knowing a little of what we were getting into was helpful, but nobody really knew the extent of it. However with combing previous reports in other years we just tried to expect anything and prepare accordingly. Still...nothing is like actually being there and doing it.

Long story short the winter mix of wet and cold wrecked havoc on the trail. Much of the trail felt like a bushwack and was alder choked. There were innumerous trees that had fallen on the trail. We'd have miles of choked sections with occasional blocks of relief. But we stayed slow and steady. It made for long days that lasted around 12 hours. At some points the trail would disappear or become obliterated due to downed trees. If it disappeared, we fanned out about 6-8' apart searching for it. It always turned up within a few minutes of careful looking. If it was obliterated by a tree we worked together to find a careful re-route around the block - sometimes easier said than done.

The group had kept up great attitudes (all in the group are ultra runners and used to continuing with things become a sufferfest). That experience helped. Still, we trained for this months ahead.

We met up with Wilderness Trail Director, Tom Suter and his crew faithfully clearing out the sections around the Clearwater Lake area. They graciously invited us into their camp after a long, wet day.

We all ultra-light packed which helped with efficiency of travel and set up when we pulled into camp. 2 of us hammock camped, 1 had a small tent and 2 had tarptents. I brought along a collapsible saw and pruning saw. I only used them once or twice because the work was pretty large and the alders we could push through. We moved downed out of the way when we could.

I used a map and compass throughout the trip but had the Gaia app on my phone for backup. I never needed it.

The trail is a gem and the scenery (heights!) amazing and worth caring for. I hope to help with trail clearing someday.

We finished the trip in 4.5 days feeling pretty incredible, tired and amazed. A sampling of our photos....

Thanks for the report. My buddy and I did that route back in 2012, also staying at Topper and West Clearwater.

Did you see the Portage Brook Campsite by any chance? It would have been after McFarland Lake and close to the eastern end of the Border Route. We stayed there and would have missed it had we not seen the picnic table and the concrete fire ring with 2' saplings growing out of it. Looked to us like no one had stayed there in years.

Looks like you had a pretty burly time. We also met Tom on our trip. He seemed really excited to meet hikers doing the whole trail.

Thanks for the pictures. Great seeing some of those same spots again.

quote Minnesotian: "
Thanks for the report. My buddy and I did that route back in 2012, also staying at Topper and West Clearwater.


Did you see the Portage Brook Campsite by any chance? It would have been after McFarland Lake and close to the eastern end of the Border Route. We stayed there and would have missed it had we not seen the picnic table and the concrete fire ring with 2' saplings growing out of it. Looked to us like no one had stayed there in years.


Looks like you had a pretty burly time. We also met Tom on our trip. He seemed really excited to meet hikers doing the whole trail.


Thanks for the pictures. Great seeing some of those same spots again.
"

Interesting that you stayed at some of the same sites. There are a couple of stretches where it would be nice to have maybe 2 more designated sites. The current sites make for interesting mileage calculations and planning. Obviously we knew we could camp anywhere, but there are very few options for that.

We camped at Portage Brook our last night. Our third night was spent on Pine.
We considered camping further north on the site right along the river, but were motivated by having less miles on our last day. It made for a very long, tough day and late arrival, but worth it. The campsite was obvious to us as the path was beaten down. It's a scrappy site and wouldn't be my first preference. Because it's lower to the water table, there were some very soaked spots. A couple of us slept on a pretty wet spot but our ground tarp fared fine. The fire ring and picnic table are a little beat up. We created a smoky fire as we had some nuisance mosquitoes.

Did you trek east to west?

quote paddlefamily:
Interesting that you stayed at some of the same sites. There are a couple of stretches where it would be nice to have maybe 2 more designated sites. The current sites make for interesting mileage calculations and planning. Obviously we knew we could camp anywhere, but there are very few options for that. "

Yep, I agree completely. We went from East to West and when we got to Clearwater, every site was full until we got to West Clearwater. Very frustrating because that made what was a planned easy day into a very long, hot, challenging day. I agree that there could be a couple more sites established purely for backpackers. And ya, even though dispersed camping is allowed, in practice would have been a major challenge as well.

quote paddlefamily:
We camped at Portage Brook our last night. Our third night was spent on Pine.
We considered camping further north on the site right along the river, but were motivated by having less miles on our last day. It made for a very long, tough day and late arrival, but worth it. The campsite was obvious to us as the path was beaten down. It's a scrappy site and wouldn't be my first preference. Because it's lower to the water table, there were some very soaked spots. A couple of us slept on a pretty wet spot but our ground tarp fared fine. The fire ring and picnic table are a little beat up. We created a smoky fire as we had some nuisance mosquitoes.

Did you trek east to west? "

Oh Portage Brook. We stayed there and Pine as well. I assume you stayed at the water site on Pine and not the site up the hill? The site up in the forest looked nice, but far away from water, so we stayed at the Pine water site.

We hiked from Grand Marais, up the SHT, and into the BRT. Portage Brook was our first campsite we stayed at when we left the SHT. It was a rainy day, the end of the SHT was overgrown, and it was the worst day of mosquitoes I have ever encountered. To say that our spirits were low would be an understatement. And then we got to Portage Brook and were very underwhelmed by our spot for the night.
But we got through it, took some pictures of the picnic table being eaten by vegetation, and had a good trip.

Oh Portage Brook. We stayed there and Pine as well. I assume you stayed at the water site on Pine and not the site up the hill? The site up in the forest looked nice, but far away from water, so we stayed at the Pine water site.


We hiked from Grand Marais, up the SHT, and into the BRT. Portage Brook was our first campsite we stayed at when we left the SHT. It was a rainy day, the end of the SHT was overgrown, and it was the worst day of mosquitoes I have ever encountered. To say that our spirits were low would be an understatement. And then we got to Portage Brook and were very underwhelmed by our spot for the night.
But we got through it, took some pictures of the picnic table being eaten by vegetation, and had a good trip. "

Yes, we stayed at the Pine water site. I never noticed the other. The fog was so thick in the morning you couldn't see the far side of the lake in all directions. Very cool.

I figured you hiked east - west. It seems like most people do. I think I was told that going west - east is 'easier' from Ed Solstad. I may be wrong, but that is why we hiked west - east. Plus I knew we'd have an easy warm-up going through the burnt out areas and it proved to be true. Had we gone the other direction I think we'd have quit. The section along the portage river was one of the most brutal. Pine trees down on the trail for miles. It was like tinker toys on steroids. But since we came the other direction though heavy alder and more down trees, we figured, what's a little more. Plus there is no bail out areas then. :)

I'd love to hike the whole thing next fall. Did you do a trip report somewhere? I'd love to see your pictures.

I enjoyed your report on this challenging trail.
Way to go)))))))
Shug

Paddlefamily,
Sorry for not replying sooner, but here are some pictures from our trip.

1. Portage Brook Site


2. Portage Brook firepit


3. Double Rainbow over Clearwater


4. Average Day on the Path

Completely jealous, this one of the few trails here in MN that are on my bucket list.

I am glad you had a good time

Thanks for the nice comments everyone - I'm itching to do the route again...some Sept/Oct.

Minnesotian - Portage Brook camp was less brushy when we stayed there. We actually make a smoky fire due to the mosquitoes. It's a rough site - not ideal, but after a long day, we didn't really care.

My girlfriends and I will be doing the trail next week, sounds like we will be hurting haha

Have a great time, its a fun trail. And since you'll be up there after major canoe season, I hope you will have an easier time getting campsites in the BW then we did. Enjoy!

quote Papinator: "My girlfriends and I will be doing the trail next week, sounds like we will be hurting haha"

Well, remember this original post was in spring 2016. I've heard it's a bit more cleared up. Let us know how it goes!