Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Winter Camping and Activities :: Tuscarora on Thursday! Advise?
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Mocha |
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SevenofNine |
Update: I did a quick check of the distance to the island site on Tusc from the portage put in and the distance is 6.8 miles. It will take you a while. |
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hubben |
We also enjoyed the company of a friendly gray jay--- perhaps the very same one you snapped a great photo of. |
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SevenofNine |
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bobbernumber3 |
quote landoftheskytintedwater: "I walked by the island site and it would be suitable to set up a hot tent at. However, you'll be hauling wood a distance back to the site. Bobber is correct. The Tusc portage is beautiful. I was through there in January. Stayed on Crooked." How long (time) did you take to trek from where you parked to Crooked Lake? I am wondering how long to get to Tuscarora. Mocha - thanks for the heads-up on getting to the Round Lake entry! |
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bobbernumber3 |
The plan is to leave my wife at the Harbor Inn, Grand Marais, Thursday morning and drive to the Round Lake entry with Tuscarora as my 2-night destination. I am looking for advise on winter camp sites, wood availability (hot tent) and lake trout fishing. My main goal of the trip is to catch a laker thru the ice. I have a lake contour map and am thinking the island site might be a good area to start. Wood could be sparse there? Do I need to be fishing the deep west side of the lake? Or would the shallower east end hold lake trout? Will I see other fishermen's leftover holes? Thanks in advance for any info... back to packing! |
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SevenofNine |
quote landoftheskytintedwater: "Two things: |
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Mocha |
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WhiteWolf |
quote Mocha: "bobber... be prepared for some bitter cold windchills tomorrow. chance of snow this weekend." Wkend looks awesome!! Tuscarora forecast |
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OldFingers57 |
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Pinetree |
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TuscaroraBorealis |
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bobbernumber3 |
quote Mocha: "bobber... be prepared for some bitter cold windchills tomorrow. chance of snow this weekend." Thanks for the heads-up. Traveling Thursday to Grand Marais. Trekking into Tuscarora on Friday... better weather predicted! Last minute packing tonight. |
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landoftheskytintedwater |
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TuscaroraBorealis |
My wife & I spent that same weekend at one of Tuscarora Lodges' cabins. She was able to catch her first ever fish through the ice (a lake trout) which provided us with a similar satisfaction and thrill. |
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Pinetree |
quote TuscaroraBorealis: "Thanks for sharing your experience and photos. I would think this time of year for everybody at the lodge and customers is more relaxing because of the slower time of year. It would be fun because you get to know each other and visit if you chose too. |
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ArrowheadPaddler |
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bobbernumber3 |
I fished out from the point in about 30' of water and jigged with a tube jig tipped with minnow. Caught two lake trout which was the goal of my trip. I had great sunshine at the campsite, but terrible wind out on the lake. All in all, a good outing! |
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bobbernumber3 |
a lot of learning and new experiences on this trip. I found the portage trails well traveled and easy to follow. Lake travel was a little more difficult, especially when you got off the float. I traveled up the Gunflint Trail early Friday morning headed for the Round Lake Entry. Here is the trail from the parking area headed to the entry point. At the Round Lake entry point, a self-registration kiosk. Here is my toboggan on Round Lake... I had to return to the kiosk to pick up my hat and gloves. On the portage from Round Lake to Missing Link Lake you pass into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Follow the trail on Missing Link Lake. I got passed up by a younger group of 4 on skis. Here is a look back at Missing Link Lake from the Tuscarora Portage This is early on the "Tusc" Portage. It is a mile long, but well used. Here I am at camp on Tuscarora Lake. I was exhausted, but feeling good. Here is the tent not fully set up yet. This friendly bird visited a couple times to eat some of my gorp. I didn't know where to fish, so drilled a hole out from my campsite the next day. A fellow came snowshoeing by and after we talked a while he took my pic for me. Ten minutes after he left I caught this 17" lake trout. This was my goal of the trip. Mission Accomplished! Fishing conditions were tough because of the wind and blowing snow. I felt good to catch 2 lakers. Sunset Saturday night lit up the trees across the lake. Sunset Heading out of Tuscarora Lake Sunday morning. The return route was so steep I had to unload the toboggan and shuttle the load uphill piece by piece. Back at Missing Link Lake feeling a little tired. Back at the edge of the BWCA feeling more tired and still a mile to the truck! The final leg back to the truck was all downhill |
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hubben |
We had some luck with tip-ups baited with Ciscoes near the bottom in about 60 feet of water near the anvil-shaped point close to the Missing Link portage. Much more appealing than the fishing was the scenery, however, and as others have said, the Missing Link to Tuscarora portage is stunningly beautiful at this time of year. I hope we packed down a good trail for you! |
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landoftheskytintedwater |
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landoftheskytintedwater |
Round Lake-You could unload your gear at Tuscarora Lodge and then go drop your car off at the turnoff to the public access. Then you only have to walk 1/4 mile back to your gear and leave from there. As for time, it's misleading because we were meeting up with a group that was already set up so we were only hauling about 30-40 pounds each. We were on snowshoes. Took 3.5 hours to get to Crooked, same on the way out. |
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bobbernumber3 |
The trip in and out was tough. I brought too much gear and would travel lighter next time. I had no clue where to fish, so just drilled a hole where I thought was deep enough and got lucky. It was a great trip. |
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Pinetree |
quote bobbernumber3: "You left the site in good condition. Thanks for the firewood! Finding that was a real treat. The load is always light going downhill. |