In August of 2023 me and three close friends went on an amazing paddling trip in the
Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area in northern Minnesota. The unique wilderness area is over 1 million acres with over 1,100 lakes and ponds and 1,200 miles of canoe routes. It is a wilderness lover and paddlers paradise. It's also a spot I have wanted to explore since I was in middle school, when I first read about the area.
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| Pine Creek |
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| Pine Lake campsite |
Across 5 days we paddling through 10 lakes. The first day an outfitter towed us and our canoes, dropping us off in the northern section of Lake Vermilion. We then did the short 0.4 mile Trout Lake Portage to Trout Lake, where we paddling along the eastern side before portaging 0.8 miles to Pine Lake. We paddling to the largest island on the lake and spent our first night there.
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| Jarrett's fish at Pine Lake, before capsizing the canoe and falling in :-D |
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me adding wood to the fire at Pine Lake
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| Pine Creek |
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| Portage point to Chad Lake from Pine Creek |
The next day we paddled north along Pine Creek, which was a wide sinuous river surrounded by wetlands. We took this to the 0.8 mile portage to Chad Lake. We paddled across this lake, once again not encountering any other people. We then portaged 0.7 miles to Buck Lake. This was already a long day, but we decided to continue on and try to get to what we were told was an amazing camping spot on Cummings Lake. Doing this long day would then allow us to spend two nights at this location.
Portaging to Buck Lake!
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| Paul portaging |
So we paddled up the length of Buck Lake then did the tough 1.6 mile portage to Cummings Lake. It was approaching sunset, but we paddled hard and made it to a stunning camp site on a peninsula.
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| portage break on the way to Cummings Lake. |
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| Sunset over Cummings Lake |
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| Cummings Lake campsite on the peninsula |
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| Cummings Lake |
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| Cummings Lake |
After two nights at Cummings Lake we paddled south through Korb Lake, along the Korb River to Little Crab Lake then a quick portage to Crab Lake. We camped along the southern shore, where we had our first only bit of rain the entire trip.
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| the group at Crab Lake! |
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| Final night, on the southern shore of Crab Lake |
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| Crab Lake |
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| Crab Lake |
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| Red maple seedling on the shore of Crab Lake |
The final day we had a quick paddle to the final 1.3 mile portage south to Burntside Lake, where our outfitter towed us back across the lake and drove us back to Ely, MN. It was an incredible trip, and I look forward to returning to the BWWCA as soon as possible!
