I’m leaving next week for an unscripted 5 day trip. I’ve heard of a couple really nice campsites but thought I would do a quick poll to hear of any “can’t be missed” locations.
sylvania
what state?
The mini BWCAW
Sylvania Wilderness Area in the Ottawa National Forest. Upper Peninsula Michigan with a finger in Wisconsin.
http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/ottawa/recreation/wilderness/
Sylvania
Having been to Sylvania a few times during October, I might share a couple of suggestions.
Pick a destination campsite according to the wind and weather. Various sites are sheltered from different directions. Look at a Sylvania map, available at the registration station or online. There probably will not be much competition for sites, we have been generally in there pretty much alone. One October, some non-registered squatters were on a site we had signed up for, and refused to move. Not wanting a fight we went elsewhere. But that was certainly the exception.
Two different entry points exist. We’ve used both the Clark and Crooked Lake accesses in the fall, again, depending on weather.
I’ve been on most of the Sylvanis sites at one time or another. During the summer months, I prefer the Loon Lake sites, as they are more remote, thus fewer people. But this time of year, not many people are up there, so weather is the primary factor. The sites are all pretty good, well spread out, and about equal.
Have fun! Post some notes about your trip, eh?
cYa, Jim
Another vote for Loon Lake
and the Loon campsite there is superb–spent a couple of days there last October and it was fantastic.
Wish I would have left the fishing gear in the car, though…
I was headed the other direction.
I guess I should head south. I was planning on doing all the lakes in the Northeast corner of the area putting in at Clark and portaging to Crooked, Mountain, the Bears, High, and back to Crooked and Clark.
If I had time, I was then thinking Loon, two unnamed lakes, Big Bateau, Deer Island, back to Loon to my Clark Lake takeout. There isn’t campsites on many of those lakes which is why I was thinking the NE would be better.
I travel fast, 5-6mph and can paddle at that speed all day long. I may find that Sylvania is just too small for my kind of paddling, but it’s 5 hours closer to me than the BWCAW.