My wife and I are looking at a 5-7 day trip and thinking of going to the very east end of the BWCAW. Any suggestions? one proviso- I did two 1 mile portages on the four falls route this year and that’s fine, but I am not interested in doing the “Long Portage”. This is a canoe trip, not back packing. I back pack also, but this is the wrong forum for that. As far what we like to do on our trips- I like to fish, but my wife likes to travel, she usually wins. I get my fishing with the “guy” trips.
eastern BWCAW
See my response on the BWCA Advice/Suggestions thread (the fisrt response). I have done 8 or 9 trips into that portion of the BWCAW, but all but one of those trips was back in the 1970’s. Let me know if you have any particular questions and I will try to answer them for you.
Dave
try outfiters
You might try outfitter sites and their tripo recommendations to get you going. This one is for most on the Gunflint. Some good reading .
http://www.gunflint-trail.com/canoetrips/outfitters.html
and this is one for example
http://www.hjo.com/routes.htm
If you want big lakes (relatively) and long lakes then you might stay north of the Gunflint. Many of these run east and west and westerly winds can make for some big waves. Personally, I do not like long, 5 mile lakes. South of the Gunflint the lakes are a bit smaller, have more islands (fish cover), and smaller.
Sawbill
I would check out Sawbill Outfitters on Sawbill Lake. You can get a good map of the area from them which has several different ‘loop/trip’ options.
I planned a trip there in 2003 which was cut short by some car problems but plan to return there for my next trip.