Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Timber Frear Loop outside of the BWCA
by LindenTree

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 05/28/2019
Entry & Exit Point: Crab Lake and Cummings from Burntside Lake (EP 4)
Number of Days: 2
Group Size: 1
Trip Introduction:
My first ever trip report, lets see how this goes. I always wanted to canoe the Timber Frear Canoe Loop and finially succeded. With my dog at age 12, I figured this would be a perfect trip for her since she is having trouble with her hips. This loop was pretty much what I figured it would be since I used to work for the USFS out of Isabella and was familiar with their boat in campsites. I stayed on Elbow Lake (2nd on in from Whitefish Lake) for 2 nites. I had a 3.5 star site with BW looking ledge rock sloping toward the lake. I saw 3 other canoes the first nite (Tuesday) and didn't see another person for 1.5 days until I took out. All sites on Elbow Lake looked pretty nice. The lone site on Timber Lake also looked nice. I wasn't impressed with the sites on Frear Lake. I actually had two picnic tables on the site I stayed at. It was quiet and really nice. Over all it was a great tirp. All 6 sites I looked at were clean, I think I was the only person camping on Elbow Lake. (Didn't see anyone else, just through trippers). The three campsites on Whitefish Lake were empty as well. Would I do it again? Probabally, but I don't like going back to places I have been to in the past. It may be on my old age list since it is easy to get to and was quiet. Get there during the week, I have heard that it can get busy on the weekends. My campsite looked like it had not been used at all this year until I got there. There were also a couple of dispersed campsites that people had made. I'm not an authority on the Timber Frear Loop but I wold guess that dispersed camping is allowed. Even with the picnic tables on my site, I was glad to have my camp chair and small table. Mosquitoes were fine but balck flies were a pain, luckily with the amount of wood around and its moisture content it made perfect conditions for a smudge fire. The smudge/smoke kept the bugs well away from my campsite. The first two pics are of my campsite. The other one is of a portage complete with portage sign.
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I'll try to add some photos.