Saturday, September 24, 2011 Summary:

For having to change our entry point and route only 3 days before the trip this turned out to be a very nice route. The full loop was about 32 miles, only had 6 portages, and only one of the portages could be considered much of a challenge. All of the lakes were very scenic with the high hills surrounding them and of course Johnson Falls is a must-see in this area. The campsites on Pine and East Pike were above average for BWCA sites. The one on West Pike was very nice but lacked level tent pads. There was lots of room to setup tents but none that was real level.

Even with rain on 4 of the 7 days it was a great trip. The timing of the rain helped out and allowed our tents and tarp to dry out each day. Only 1 day (Sunday) that was spent pretty much under the tarp or in the tents all day. On the other 3 days with rain, it didn’t start until the afternoon and then was off & on the rest of the day. It’s an area I would like to get back to and hopefully see more blue sky and sunshine.

Crew at our site on East Pike Lake

Dennis, John, Chris, Brent

A few “twin” shots – the same view under different conditions:

The view looking east from our site on Pine Lake.

The view looking west from our site on Pine Lake.

The hillside to the west of our site on East Pike Lake.