Chances are this trip will be the greatest back country trip of my lifetime. I have done about 15 trips, all in the one week range from age 14 onward. Cousin Bob used to talk about traversing the entire BWCA, and that dream always stuck in my head. It came to the top of this list when I retired in late 2024. I now have the time and I’m still young enough to to pull it off (I hope).
The BWCA is over a million acres of wilderness and Quetico Provincial Park contiguous to the north is another million+. So it is big. I’m told that if you just paddle from one end to the other you can do it in a couple of weeks. We are going to do it in seven, with a bit of wandering about and a ton of fishing and a few friends.
We are going to base our big trip out of the town of Ely, and we are going to travel east with the prevailing winds. The trip is going to be in three parts: a 10 day trip, and 8 day trip, and a planned 36 day trip. With a week in lodges/cabins to rest and recuperate before doing the next section.
This blog is going to be the first use of the website that I have been threatening to put together since retirement. This introduction will tell you what the plan is, then we are going to use a Garmin Messenger Plus and a relay to post pictures from the backcountry. Since that will also include location data from the Garmin, it will be fun way for people to follow along. I am sure to get at least one follower: Mom!
The first section of the trip is June 13th to 22nd from Snowbank Lake to Round Lake. Ten days and Sheila and I will be doing this one solo while outfitting ourselves. It will be a good test of our food packing for the longer 36 day trip. We end with a pickup from Gunflint Lodge and a little less than a week enjoying our time there before the next section with friends. Below is a tentative plan of that route from paddleplanner.com. The days and campsites are tentative of course, we’ll make changes on the fly based on where the fishing is good and best views. The route is just to give us an idea of how far we will need to go per day on average.
Between the first at second sections we stay at the Gunflint Lodge. We are trying all three accommodations, the new hotel, the lakeside private cabins and the voyageur cabins run by the outfitter division. The last night Marcy and Nate, and Shawn and Kathy will show up to prepare for the second section of the trip. The six of us are doing 8 days from Gunflint Lodge to North Fowl lake on the far eastern edge of the park. It is Shawn and Kathy’s first trip to the BWCA and Nate and Marcy’s second. Unlikely their last, certainly not ours! The route is pretty light hopefully leaving room for some 2 night stays at good campsites to concentrate on some fishing.
At the end of the second section Voyager North is going to come all the way from Ely to pick up me and Sheila and give the other 4 a ride back to Gunflint and their vehicle. That was a big piece of the planner and we have been super happy with Tanner’s Voyageur North Outfitters and their crew. Great outfit. We’ll be spending a week in their new cabins in preparation for the biggest and last section of the trip.
Here I will give a shout out to the helpful folks on the BWCA.com message forum that helped shape this trip. I was going to try and traverse west to east by coming down Vermilion and Loon Lake, to Lac la Croix, but I got put onto the tow option to Beaverhouse Lake in Quetico by Anderson’s Outfitters. This is going to allow us to more fully experience Quetico in the last section of the trip. I have only done limited trips into a long the border in the past. BWCA.com itself is a little bit of a bummer which their active anti linking policy. Boo for that. Couldn’t share paddleplanner maps or other websites there, or even email addresses. There was considerable experience was in the message forum though.
So we are going to get Voyager North to transfer us to Pine Ridge Motel on July 12th, get up early for the tow to Beaverhouse Lake on the 13th and plan to exit about 37 days later back out at Snowbank. The food is already packed for that, and needless to say that will be double portages. We are planning fish 3 nights a week, but all breakfasts and lunches are packed, so we may be able to extend if we want. Our Garmin will let us send email messages if we need to, so we can communicate if necessary.
This last section of map is the most direct route. For sure we won’t do that! As you can see there are tons of lakes and side quests to engage in. If we wanted to we could easily paddle out in 10 days, so that means a lot of time to explore and fish.
So that is what the “Big Trip” is about. It is a pretty big adventure. We are pretty excited to be able to share it with you from the backcountry via Garmin, even though that communication will be one way for sure. We won’t know if anyone’s is getting the updates until we emerge from each section. Then of course we’ll be able to dump some photos on FB or even make additional posts here.