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Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Winter Camping and Activities :: Moose to Saganaga Trip Report
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| Mnpat |
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| TuscTraveler |
We talked to a few guys from Ely on Knife Lake (they are the ones who established the trail in from Snowbank) and they told us that the dog sledders normally would of done our route and often gone as far as Ottertrak however this year the slush was so bad early in the season that no one was dog sledding far into the BWCA. Then once the slush froze during the Polar Vortex in January there was tons of deep snow so none of the dog sledders wanted to be the ones to break the trail (So we got the honor of breaking all the trail instead!). Mnpat - Just looked up the emsco beast sled, looks solid. Ultimately we used Paris Expedition sleds as we already had them (price was right!). In general our sleds and poles worked well. My brother had a lot more issues with his falling over but often that was because the weight was not well distributed or his poles were not pulling evenly. Always love getting new stuff but at the same time need to utilize what we have to save money and storage space at home (Wife already makes fun off all my gear!). |
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| Pinetree |
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| whitecedar |
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| TuscTraveler |
Mnpat yes it would of been nice to not have to do the trip so quickly and enjoy it a bit more, that said I am always torn about how much PTO I want to take (and how many nights I really want to winter camp...especially when you do not have a hot tent!). |
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| Mnpat |
Thanks for sharing It would be fun to make it a weeklong trip with some fishing thrown in the mix. |
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| Pinetree |
Also winter camping from Sag to Swamp to ottertrack we often could follow a dog sled trail. Often we broke off to Hansen than Knife and yes 4 feet of snow on portages and one heck of a workout. Love those photo's and looks like lake travel was pretty good. I know when lake travel is on the poor side 1 MPH is about it. Good conditions-the skies the limit. |
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| Mnpat |
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| paddler1953 |
That's all for now. Take care and until next time....be well. snapper |
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| TuscTraveler |
Weather was amazing as it was mostly sunny, mild wind (when there was wind it was at our back), no significant snowfall, and temps were 20-30 daytime & 0-10 nights. Really could not of asked for better weather overall. Ice conditions were solid. Everywhere we drilled holes the ice was at least 2-3 feet thick. We also did not find any slush anywhere on our route. We did come across a lot of open water along the border route despite the cold temperatures this year, moving water in the streams between lakes has kept the ice out. We were careful to stay to the edge or bushwhack to stay off the bad ice. Snow conditions were a handful to deal with. Snow on lakes ranges from crusty tops on bigger lakes to sinking into a foot of powder on smaller or skinnier lakes. Portages were brutal, snow was often hip deep. The portage from Ottertrack to Swamp (80 rods) took us nearly an hour to complete. There are very few winter trails anywhere (There is one from Snowbank to Knife, but we did not know this in advance). We had to break our own trails everywhere except for Moose Lake, Newfound Lake, and the Snowmobile Trail on Sag. Made for some very long days but an amazing trip. We were skiing every day from sunrise till after sunset and we needed every one of those hours in order to finish in 3 days. Link to photos is below if anyone is interested, enjoy! Trip Photos |