BWCA Headed to Tuscarora Thursday Boundary Waters Winter Camping and Activities
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01/23/2018 07:41PM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
Driving up Wednesday.

Pulling in the Tusky Portage to basecamp on Tuscarora Lake for 3 nights. Planning day trips to Gillis, Crooked/Mora and maybe Blue Snow.

Solo w/ dog. Using my new toboggan.

Ice fishing for the first time also w/ my new Nils Auger. Got jigs and twisters. Hopefully I find some lakers!
 
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Walley_huntr
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01/23/2018 08:34PM  
The last time I fished Blue Snow was about 15 years ago. I didn’t have a single bite. It will be interesting to hear how you do if you make it in there. Good luck!
01/23/2018 10:44PM  
Have a good trip! Be safe stay warm have a Goliath King Sue!
Yea I'm still acclimating after Arizona, that and being lazy.

butthead
SevenofNine
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01/24/2018 10:19AM  
Have a safe trip. Enjoy your time and don't worry too much about how things are going it's all good when you get outside.
01/24/2018 03:01PM  
Have fun and good luck up there! I made it onto Blue Snow just last week, but from the north. I only fished 2 hours and got no bites. I'm a rookie ice fisher and was probably just in too shallow a water. Maybe the sun was too bright. Don't know.

If interested, I could not find frozen ciscos anywhere but was told they had frozen smelt (sea smelt?) at Bucks in Grand Marais. Not sure if they are as good or not.
01/30/2018 01:41PM  
Well, I had a great time. I stayed at the Hungry Hippie the first night and then arrived at Round Lake at 9am the next day. The pull into Tusc took me about 4 hours. There was a packed path on both the lakes and the portages to follow. The Tusky portage was much harder in the winter. The turns and hills made negotiating the sled a bit more challenging than I expected. I ended up camping at the old site of the Tuscarora Resort in the north end of the lake (a beach site). A group had recently camped there and left a nicely cleared spot for the tent and some fire wood.

The next day, I chopped lots of wood, caught my first laker and pike through the ice (2 feet thick) and made pizza in the wood stove. The sunset was wonderful.

On day three I pulled out and it went much smoother as I was better at controlling the sled and avoided tipping it over (only once on the way out). Was very tired and decided to stay at the Trail Center Motel after a hearty dinner at the restaurant.

The dog, Molly, did very well. She is amazing at how she knows the path I am headed in (you can see in the videos) and usually leads me. She became quite good at finding the packed snow paths on the lakes even under the recent snow drifts.

Love the new Black River Sled, Love the Snowtrekker Tent and Kni-Co Stove. The Nils Auger cut through the ice like butter. Only complaint is the trip was too short and it would be more fun with people next time. My 3 man-Basecamp tent takes alot of wood to keep warm. LOL.

Here is a link to the trip videos:

Winter Trip Videos
01/30/2018 01:49PM  
Winter Trip Photos. Photos
01/30/2018 09:48PM  
Dan-thanks for posting about your trip! I was planning to head to Tuscarora-entering Sunday. Went there last year under really favorable travel conditions with a buddy and I've been jonesing to get back ever since. After reading about your plans I was hoping to run into you on the trail. Sounds like you came out a day early which makes me all the more glad that I changed my plans too (the beauty of going solo is that you can make changes at the last second-especially in winter with no quota on permits). Given that I couldn't recruit any mates my wife preferred that I stay somewhere a little closer to civilization and cell phone reception so I went to Burntside Lake near Ely to target Lakers there (to no avail). Glad your new gear served you well and it sounds like you made it back with all your digits and caught a laker so well done! The portage from missing link into tuscarora can be tricky with a long or heavy sled-the latter especially if it gets icy.
-Rich
01/31/2018 08:16PM  
good job Lt Dan
DanCooke
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01/31/2018 09:29PM  
winter trips are hard to beat. Solo winter trips are a lot of work when you hot tent.
01/31/2018 10:03PM  
Walley_huntr: "The last time I fished Blue Snow was about 15 years ago. I didn’t have a single bite. It will be interesting to hear how you do if you make it in there. Good luck!"


It was me also,but around 20 years on Blue Snow,zero bites for 3 people on a nice day.
01/31/2018 10:05PM  
Have a great time.
TuscaroraBorealis
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02/02/2018 09:03AM  
Of course this does you no good now...... :) but, during our stay on Tuscarora last spring, we discovered what appears to be a winter trail cutting across the fish hook shaped peninsula just SW of the Missing Link portage. There also was a trail between the camp there and the beach site. Don't know what they would look like in the winter??? But, figured they must be there for that reason.

Sounds like a great adventure. Thanks for taking the time to share your story & photos.
 
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