Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Far East Loop
by ferris51

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 06/06/2019
Entry Point: North Fowl Lake (EP 70)
Exit Point: Pine Lake (EP 68)  
Number of Days: 3
Group Size: 2
Trip Introduction:
Been asking a buddy of mine to come up with me for about 5 years. He finally convinced his wife and was able to get away from work for his first BWCA experience and after only base camping in my previous experiences decided I wanted to do a loop and keep moving. We didn't see any moose, but there were tracks all over the place. We saw plenty of eagles, beavers, and some otters.
Day 1 of 3
Thursday, June 06, 2019

Got up and watched the sunrise at Tettegouche State Park, stopped in Grand Marais for breakfast at South of the Border Cafe, then went up to our entry point. The road to the entry point turned to gravel and is long and winding but for us it just added to everything. We went in and paddled through John Lake, we had trouble finding the first portage but after we did it wasn't a difficult portage. Canoed through the Royal River, North Fowl, and into Moose Lake. The canoeing was awesome. Nice easy going and beautiful scenery. The portages into North Fowl and Moose were muddy and wet, going into Moose was actually a creek the whole way, which made things difficult. Found a campsite on Moose and relaxed after a long day only to be woken up in the middle of the night by something outside the tent sniffing and nudging my head. That was all that happened, but I didn't sleep much that night. In the morning we were greeted by beavers swimming right up close and slapping their tales at us. Unfortunately both in the evening and the morning the little black flies were so bad if you had any flesh showing whatsoever they found it. Worst bug situation I've ever had.