Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Seagull Lake to Alpine Lake
by spencer2420

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 07/24/2016
Entry & Exit Point: Seagull Lake Only (EP 54A)
Number of Days: 4
Group Size: 2
Trip Introduction:
This is a trip from Seagull Lake into Alpine Lake. We were supposed to go through Red Rock Lake and into Saganaga, but I'll get to that later.
Report
We started out at entry point 54A and paddled up the north side of 3 mile island. We originally planned on canoeing straight to Alpine Lake, but it happened to be a really windy day so it was almost impossible to cross the lake. We tried crossing the big part of the lake but we started taking on water and we were lucky that there was a campsite right near us. We ended up jumping out of the canoe and started throwing our gear on the shore because the canoe was filled with water.
We decided to camp there for the night since the waves weren't letting up. It was a very nice campsite with a huge flat rocky surface and great pads to set up tents. The fishing there was also really good.

We slept good that night and once morning hit us we were on our way to Alpine Lake. We saw a lot of people heading into and out of Alpine. We decided to skip the portage and took the creek into alpine. We had to walk the canoe through the water due to the current and rapids. After a few hours of paddling we reached our campsite which was on a peninsula. It was another really good site with good tent pads and cooking area.
We did some fishing from shore there but it wasn't the greatest. We made the decision to stay at this spot for two nights and not to paddle into Saganaga Lake due to the threat of waves and strong winds. We ate brats that night and decided to fish the next day. Using leeches on day 3, we paddled to other parts of Alpine Lake and had an okay day of fishing.
The next morning we paddled out of Alpine Lake with a group of 6 other canoes. Once we got into Seagull Lake we saw a Bald Eagle resting on a tree. After that it was smooth sailing to the car. This was our first time in the BWCA and it was definitely an incredible experience. I will definitely be back in the near future.