Hello,

I have been reading the Beymer Western Region book for EP 14.

The book describes a Sioux Hustler Loop that proceeds in a counter clock wise direction. That route starts by heading east to Shell.

I have also read a few trip reports here. The reports here all seem to proceed up to Little Loon and on to Slim and spend the last night on Lynx or Shell.

What are the advantages of going one direction or the other?

None really. It's mostly about dealing with west winds.....but none of those lakes are long, skinny, east west oriented ones like off the Gunflint. I did it clockwise. First night Slim, last night Hustler. We did have NW winds first day that made travel up into little Loon tough. (Actually it was quite stormy and a little dicey), but those could have easily been SW winds quartering from our rear. Depends on the day. But, for the most part, I think it's a coin toss.

I agree with cowdoc. I did it clockwise, but I don't know that there's any particular advantage one way or the other. You never know about wind, but portages don't change. Nice loop.

We also did it clockwise. I don't think I had a reason for choosing it, but it worked out well. Here is a link to my slide show from our Spring 2016 LIS trip.

I did this two years ago. Planned on going clockwise but had big winds my first day so wanted to avoid Loon. My rationale on clockwise was to get the Loon crossing over with as it was the only big water crossing on the route. I was planning on camping on South-Finger-Hustler. Instead went Hustler-Finger-Loon. Only had four days but with more time would have loved to camp on Ge-Be or somewhere in the Beartrack/Fat area.

I did this loop clockwise only because there was a particular lake up on the north side of the loop that I really wanted to get to. You could totally wing it and make a decision. As you go based on winds if you wanted to. I did the loop in July and didn’t see anyone for two days of my trip.

Tony

landoftheskytintedwater: "I did this two years ago. Planned on going clockwise but had big winds my first day so wanted to avoid Loon. My rationale on clockwise was to get the Loon crossing over with as it was the only big water crossing on the route. "

Thanks. This makes sense. If the weather is good with low winds to start, get the Loon crossing out of the way because it is the biggest water crossing.

GopherAdventure: "I did this loop clockwise only because there was a particular lake up on the north side of the loop that I really wanted to get to. "

Is it the one that has lake trout that you spent a night on? :-)

ghamer: " Here is a link to my slide show from our Spring 2016 LIS trip. "

Great slide show. I enjoyed watching it.