Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Quetico Forum :: Man Chain into Falls Chain mileage
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cburton103 |
The highlight for us (as fishermen) was the Man Chain. That, This, and Other Man were all worthy of spending a chunk of time. Fishing on the Falls Chain was fairly poor for some reason. Lots of small to medium smallies, and my buddy caught his personal best 27.5” walleye. But otherwise quality fish were few and far between while we fished our way up through the Four Falls/Bald Rock falls area and through Sidney. I don’t know how I got it in my head that Glacier had lake trout - it almost certainly does not. We paddled the entire lake with a depth finder and never found a spot over 30’ deep. Lots of action for decent smallies and smallish pike. We enjoyed the 3 star camp there quite a bit. We also saw a bull moose enjoying an evening snack in McEwen Creek just downstream of the beaver dam pullover, which was certainly a highlight of the trip. The smaller lakes along the McEwen creek were nice. I especially liked Turn, Edge and Rod. We had moderate luck with smallies and pike once again, and I also caught a decent largemouth bass through there as well. The portage into Fauquier from Dumas is a doozy. Not overly long, but some very challenging footing since the portage follows close to the creek through a steep and rocky ravine. I had to take the canoe off several times through this section. We enjoyed Louisa lake. We caught good numbers of lakers in mostly 15-30 feet of water spread throughout the lake. Interestingly, the MNR had two crews running gill nets in Louisa while we were there. We saw the float plane flying to drop off both crews as we paddled through Dumas and Fauquier and chatted with the crew at the end of the portage into Louisa. They’re apparently sampling a few of the larger lakes this year. Heading out through Poacher Creek and Poacher was an interesting way to end the trip. The creek from Sunday to Poacher was an easy paddle (early June). Poacher was an attractive mid sized lake with similar laker fishing to Louisa - good action, smaller lakers. The 330 rod portage out was quite muddy/boggy, but was recently maintained. I probably prefer exiting through the North Portage over the Poacher route and the Singing Brook/Yellow Brick Road options, but it’s always neat to go a new way as well. Bugs were quite active. Not quite as bad as last year, but certainly on the heavy end. We didn’t notice any bass on their beds throughout our trip surprisingly. Some lakes had beds with no fish on them, and some lakes we didn’t notice beds. |
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cburton103 |
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cburton103 |
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plander |
cburton103: "plander: "Just completed a PP - Carp (EP) - Man Chain - Saganagons - Falls Chain - Wet - McEwen - Louisa - Sunday - PP - Moose EP 25 loop. Distance was 70 miles - single portaged. 6 nights/7 days with nights 4 and 5 on Louisa. Entered May 26. Exited June 1. The stretch between McEwen and Louisa was the most challenging for us - took about 9 hours with a few breaks. Tow from Latourell's to PP on day of entry and paddled out to EP 25 on day of exit. Filled out a day use permit at EP 25 prior to departure for the June 1 exit. Group of six - four of us in our late 50's." We stayed at the following sites - we had 5 tents (1-2P tents), 3 canoes, 6 people: 1. This Man Lake site 1S2 - plenty of tent pads - some up higher. Good fishing nearby - walleye, northern, bass, lakers. 2. Saganagons site 562 - island site - less than 1 mile past the Slate Lake portage. Several tent pads - some up higher. open and spacious. Nice site. Good fishing from camp - on shore/multiple rocks to fish from. 3. McEwen site 1T8 - small island. Not much to choose from on McEwen. Storm coming in so we chose quickly. We made it work. Better for 2-3 tents. Not much wood available, if any. Least favorite site of the trip. Did not fish McEwen much. 4. Louisa site 1JW - best site on trip. 5 star. We stayed two nights. Excellent trout fishing on Louisa. Portage to Agnes is steep - took two people to get boat down the steep parts. 5. Basswood site 14E - excellent large site - open but under red pines. Good fishing in Sunday Bay - northern, walleye, bass. Meadows Lake is great for largemouth bass (last year info). |
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billconner |
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sns |
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Papa09 |
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ISRO |
Tow to PP then night 1 was on Bell Lake Night 2 on McEwen Lake Night 3 was on Louisa Night 4 was on Basswood, as I arrived at noon and had to wait till the next morning for my tow Great route, McEwen chain was my favorite. |
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plander |
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cburton103 |
plander: "Just completed a PP - Carp (EP) - Man Chain - Saganagons - Falls Chain - Wet - McEwen - Louisa - Sunday - PP - Moose EP 25 loop. Distance was 70 miles - single portaged. 6 nights/7 days with nights 4 and 5 on Louisa. Entered May 26. Exited June 1. The stretch between McEwen and Louisa was the most challenging for us - took about 9 hours with a few breaks. Tow from Latourell's to PP on day of entry and paddled out to EP 25 on day of exit. Filled out a day use permit at EP 25 prior to departure for the June 1 exit. Group of six - four of us in our late 50's." Did you do any fishing? Any favorite lakes or campsites along the way? We enter Thursday for the same route. |
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rmiller |
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cburton103 |
We plan to have five travel days and three layover days for this route. I expect two of the travel days to feel moderate in terms of difficulty, and three of the days to be moderately strenuous. That’s for a group of average to fit 36 year olds who single portage efficiently but paddle average speed at best. This route is supposed to be great though. It will be my 15th total BWCA/Quetico trip over as many summers. |
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Papa09 |
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Papa09 |
Thanks, let me know how your trip goes! Jeremy |
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cburton103 |
Papa09: "Just curious, who are you guys utilizing for the tow?" I’ve just gone through whoever my outfitter is that year. Honestly, I’ve been satisfied with every outfitter I’ve used. I currently use William and Hall because I like staying right on Moose Lake, and they have the best bunk house I’ve stayed in personally. We usually just pick a date and time before the trip and meet the tow driver at that time. We take a Garmin as well and I usually get a cell number that I could text if plans changed, but I haven’t needed to do that. One note about this route from my research is that the stretch between McEwen and Louisa campsites are a bit few and far between. They’re mostly 1-2 star rated sites, and there are a lot of portages. We plan to stay on Glacier for a couple nights and then make the push to Louisa. That’s more portages than we ideally prefer in a day, but so it goes! |
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Banksiana |
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Papa09 |
cburton103: "Papa09: "Just curious, who are you guys utilizing for the Tow? Also I’ve only used a tow service on way out, never on way in, do you have a set time and day to meet them for ride out? I do carry a garmin inreach so I could let them know a day or two in advance if that’s even a thing?!" That’s good to know, thanks again! I haven’t dug into this route much at all. I’ve been staring at the map and this just jumped out at me. |
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billconner |
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