Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Mudro to Beartrap to Moosecamp and back
by ChadLeo

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 06/25/2008
Entry & Exit Point: Mudro Lake (EP 23)
Number of Days: 4
Group Size: 3
Trip Introduction:
The people involved in this trip were my cousin, Blake (21), his brother, Tyler (16) and myself (31). This was Blake and Tyler's first Boundary Waters experience. We rented a Souris River 18.5 Duralite for the trip and it was a great boat. I hope you enjoy the report.
Day 1 of 4
Wednesday, June 25, 2008

After a night in a Voyageur North bunkhouse, we made our way to entry point 23 at 6:30 AM. The sky was overcast with patches of sun lighting the day as bugs hovered around our heads. Quickly, we unloaded the canoe and unpacked the car and as I walked around the car I looked into the creek separating Mudro Lake and Picket Lake and saw something rather unnatural floating along. “Hey Blake, your sleeping bag is floating down the creek!!” I yelled at my cousin. This was he and his younger brother, Tyler’s, first time to the Boundary Waters and they were off to quite the start.

Blake unleashed an abundance of curse words and retrieved his bag then we portaged our gear down to the water’s edge just as the sky decided to unload sheets of rain. It poured and poured for about ten minutes soaking us all to the bone as we all scrambled for our rain gear. Finally, we hopped in the canoe and paddled off down the creek between tall reeds of grass as the sky suddenly opened up to a beautiful bright blue.

We made it through Mudro and the pond separating the lake from Fourtown Lake and then to the up and down the 141 rod portage I had long warned my cousins about. I carried the canoe in one trip and it was grueling, especially with the rain slick rocks and mud holes. In time we made it though and zipped right through Fourtown Lake, Boot Lake, Fairy Lake, Gun Lake and Gull Lake. Along the way I thought Fairy Lake was aptly named because there was something mystical and beautiful about it. By the time we made Gull Lake, the gorgeous northeast campsite was open and we stopped and searched around. It was still reasonably early and my mind was made up that we were going to shoot for the only site on Beartrap Lake which was still three lakes away.

We made it to Beartrap around 4:00 PM and thankfully the site was open. After nine hours of paddling and portaging covering around ten miles, we were relieved and exhausted. That evening we had a terrific meal of German wild rice venison bratwursts slow cooked over a pine fire and they were heavenly. Once the sun started going down we tried our luck fishing around a small island in the middle of Beartrap Lake. The weather was by no means ideal for fishing with a strong sun overhead and hardly a breeze at all. We had some bites but caught nothing and returned early so I could photograph the sunset which wasn’t overly dramatic with no clouds.