|
Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Quetico Forum :: For Q EPs what are most used to least used?
|
| Author | Message Text | ||
| bobbernumber3 |
|
||
| Jackfish |
~ WAY more Americans visit Quetico than Canadians. ~ Quetico sees only 10% of the number of people who visit the BWCA. ~ There are six Quetico ranger stations but multiple entry points. I probably won't have them in exact order, but the "busiest" Quetico entry point is the Prairie Portage ranger station, and it's the busiest (relatively speaking) by a long shot over the others. I've been told by Quetico staff that Beaverhouse is the least used ranger station (although it seems to me that Lac La Croix would be the least used.) BH services Quetico Lake and Cirrus Lake entry points. Lac La Croix in the southwest corner is hard to get to, accessible by motorboat from Crane Lake or a long drive in from Highway 11 in the north. (Same road that's used to get to Beaverhouse.) That leaves three more - Atikokan Park HQ (which services the northern entry points of Beaverhouse, Lerome, Nym and Stanton Bay. Dawson Trail in the northeast corner of the park has it's own ranger station and is pretty busy because of the campground they have there and the fact that the ranger station is open until 8:30pm daily. DT services Pickerel Lake and Baptism Creek. Cache Bay in the southeast corner is accessed from the end of the Gunflint Trail. Like Prairie Portage, about 99% of the visitors who use the ranger station are American. Cache Bay services the Falls Chain, Man Chain, Knife, etc. So... I would rank the ranger stations by usage this way: 1. Prairie Portage 2. Cache Bay 3. Dawson Trail 4. Atikokan 5. Lac La Croix 6. Beaverhouse |
||
| oldwinter |
|
||
| oldwinter |
|
||
| tumblehome |
Tom |
||
| Jackfish |
tumblehome: "Hmmmm... Beaverhouse might be the least used, not because of the entries it serves, but that you can also choose to get your permit in Atikokan for the same entries. I've been to Beaverhouse before where they said I was the only person getting a permit there that day." Good point as to why the Beaverhouse ranger station is the least used. Lots of folks use the Atikokan ranger station for getting their permit to save the paddle across Beaverhouse before heading to their entry point of Quetico or Cirrus Lake. It's not THAT far out of the way if you're heading into Quetico Lake, but if you have a Cirrus entry permit, that's a lot of backtracking across a large lake that can be tough to paddle if windy. We used to stop at the Beaverhouse ranger station every trip, but finally started driving up the day before and stopping at the Atikokan park headquarters for our permit. We'd stay overnight in town (usually the White Otter Inn), then head into the park at the crack of dawn so we could be paddling the early morning glass. |
||
| bobbernumber3 |
tumblehome: "Hmmmm... Beaverhouse might be the least used, not because of the entries it serves, but that you can also choose to get your permit in Atikokan for the same entries. I've been to Beaverhouse before where they said I was the only person getting a permit there that day. Similar with LLC... you can get your permit thru Zups and never stop at the Ranger Station. |