Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Trip Planning Forum :: Isabella Entry?
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cyclones30 |
As far as currently closed sites, do you just call the FS? Or if they open some of the old ones? |
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egknuti |
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cyclones30 |
Or some sites are kind of burned but right around the site was saved or not too bad. |
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egknuti |
cyclones30: "Right, I understand the scar. But like mentioned above, some sites are closed that don't make sense? Do closed sites have a sign? Is the grate pulled out? How do you know it's closed if you showed up to one? Or it's still got the latrine and grate...it's just a mess from the fire. (and slowly growing back) Any site that is no longer in use had the fire grate pulled out and latrine removed (if it didn't burn in the fire). These spots are overgrown now and would not be suitable for camping either way. |
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cyclones30 |
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cyclones30 |
How was the fishing? Or is? Since that shouldn't have changed.... Anyone been back? Probably more hikers parking there to use the pow wow trail than use the lake EP I'd guess? Boga just to the east has 2 sites and looks fairly green yet and mostly missed from the fire. But I'm assuming sites are overgrown from lack of use. Has anyone gone between Perent and Isabella lately? How was that trip pre fire? I know people lately go west but I don't hear anything about east. |
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LindenTree |
I've never been into Parent lake from Isabella, the 12 portages probably make it unattractive for many paddlers. I fought the Pagami Fire for 2 weeks and Isabella Lake was in my division, that area got slicked off except the SE part you mentioned, 6 of the campsites on the lake are now closed post fire. Things look pretty good on Boga Lake post fire wise. A nice sweet campsite is directly of Isabella Lake on Island river in the non-BWCA area. You can get to it from the forest road directly south and west of the bridge over the Tomahawk road. You could probably glass the campsite from the road to see if someone was camped there. Campsite is on the southside of the first portage from the Island River EP. Note that this in the motored area but it is hardly ever used except on holiday weekends. I've stayed at that campsite a time or two. It survived the fire. |
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cyclones30 |
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CoffeeInTheWoods |
cyclones30: "Thanks for the info. Any thoughts on the fishing? Or what it was back then. Or in that area in general...the rivers or Quagda or..." Went in there on my first solo four years ago. Stayed on the northern site on Boga (#1926), which is a fine site for a group of one. Lots of solitude. Decent walleye selection. Stayed another night on the SW campsite on the Isabella island (#1917), which is a gem of a campsite. Lovely cedar grove. Large boulders nearby in the woods. Excellent lounging rocks. Steadily caught pike and walleye trolling the bay to the river on the west side and this was during a hot July. Going in, it was a windy day, making for a bit of a dicey paddle heading northeast to the Boga portage. Coming back was the calmest, quietist I've ever experienced in the BW. Glass lake, could hear the water droplets off my paddle hit the water like thunderclaps. The absence of big tress on much of the shoreline perhaps means less noise? This all led to one of the most serene moments as I sat in the middle of the lake and could hear almost nothing except those loud drops. |
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cyclones30 |
CoffeeInTheWoods: "cyclones30: "Thanks for the info. Any thoughts on the fishing? Or what it was back then. Or in that area in general...the rivers or Quagda or..." Thanks! Very cool story |
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boonie |
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cyclones30 |
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Speckled |
There were 6 of us, two families of three, moms, dads and our 4 year old sons. We were faster then the other family and shot ahead to scout campsites. We stopped, got out and looked at one site, the other family caught up and we decided to keep moving. We all left, we again shot ahead, skipped another site and landed at a great site on the eastern shore. The site was great, we unloaded our gear and looked down the shore to see the other family not too far behind. We also looked into the lake to see another canoe paddling like mad straight at us. Both canoes arrived at the same time, one our friends and the other the forest ranger. The guy just starts interrogating us. Accusing us of occupying more than one site at a time, wanting to go through our gear...it was ridiculous. After what felt like forever and alot of back and forth he just decides, ok we're going to do maintenance on this site, grabbed the lacky that was with him and was just generally in our way while trying to set up for the majority of the afternoon. We did get a fresh latrine and clean fireplace, but it just felt to me like the guy decided to stay and be pain as a result of being shot down on whatever powertrip he was on earlier. Dude was ridiculous. |
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LindenTree |
cyclones30: "Jeez, sounds like you're right. I use this site on BWCA.com Put it into Satellite View in the upper left corner and you can see the burn scar. |