Boundary Waters

I made reservations for 6 at the Boundary Waters. We have a 7-day permit starting on June 9 for entrance/exit through site 16.
The reservation is refundable through May, so we are not committed to this and can certainly change the route/trip. I just felt that booking now would increase our odds of success.

Site 16 and the surrounding areas can be viewed on each of the following maps:
http://photos.bwca.com/routeguide/entry16.gif
http://www.bwca.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=maps.gmap&lat=47.91206&lon=-91.34139&zoom=9

I think site 16 looks like a great option.

Hi my name is Nathan and I have a few questions.
1) How much hiking to the sites/from where ever will we have to do? I ask because it effects how much gear we can bring and how light we need/ should keep our packs.
2) How long is the drive to our destination?
3) Should we bring fishing poles of some kind and have a shore lunch?
4) On a scale of 1 - 10 how sexy is Nick Offerman?

I could probably look these up on my own but whats the point of a forum if we don't use it?

Hi, Nathan. Welcome to the interwebs chatroom!

3. I too would like to fish if possible. It would be sweet to catch some stuff, cook it and eat it.
1. From the looks of it, I think we can customize our trip according to how far we want to hike versus canoe versus camp. If we feel like we are getting weighted down, we can do less hiking and more canoeing/camping.
2. If we are staying with Evan the night before, the trip will be quite manageable and including time to get the canoes it would be something like 8-10h total. Minneapolis is about 5hr from Milwaukee.

We have til June, we should try and figure out how much we want to/need to hike on the 9th so we can start figuring out how much gear to bring and if we can bring some comfort items too. Like a chair. How great would a chair be when camping.
http://www.alitedesigns.com/monarch-chair.html

The only hiking we would have to do with all of our gear is for portages. The following map would show estimates of portage lengths: http://photos.bwca.com/routeguide/entry16.gif
The black lines represent portages and the numbers next to those lines represent the length the portages (portages are measuring in rods, which is the length of a canoe, or about 15 feet).

I chose site 16 because it would have shorter portages. Our potentially longest portage is right at the start: 176 rods (1/2 mile). Typically, we would want to make each portage in 2 or 3 trips. If we wanted to bring more gear, we could easily plan around taking 3 trips for each portage. Campsites themselves are located by the shore and don't really require additional hiking. If we stay at a campsite for more than a day (which I recommend doing at least once), we can do exploration-based hiking without full gear.

Supposedly Lake Agnes is great for fishing, so we should bring some fishing gear. Poles would not be out of the question; it really depends on what you are willing to carry during the portages. I don't own poles but would be willing to pitch in to help carry them during portages.

I would think that a chair would be a nuisance, but I must admit that I would be jealous if someone else had a chair and I didn't.

Jeff, your link doesn't work. L2Internetz.

And because no one answered Nathan's #4...

7

butts

Andrew wrote:Jeff, your link doesn't work. L2Internetz.

Link fixed.

What I see as our biggest issues is transportation of canoes. I would assume that we would just take two cars, meaning no good vehicle for canoe transportation.

One thought that I had was to rent a U-Haul and canoes in Ely. Drive the canoes to our launch site, return the U-Haul and then head back to the launch site. My primary concern with that is that our launch site is a little over an hour from Ely - meaning an extra 2+ hours to our drive time (both at the beginning, then again on our return).

Does anyone have other ideas?

A trailer might be cheaper than a u-haul and do the same job. I'm not sure tho, I've never compared prices, but if they both do the same thing why not. We wouldn't need the enclosed part of a u-haul because it doesn't matter if the canoes get wet. I dunno, just shooting ideas lemme know what you guys think.

A trailer would certainly be preferable - we might even be able to find someone to borrow it from.

Though, the question is: does anyone have a hitch?

Well played Butters. I don't think anyone has a hitch which is a damn shame because a U-haul is probably a lot of money. That really sucks that we can't just fit it on top of the car.

I will continue to investigate the trailer idea as I know two people with small flats that might just work. I will mostly likely forget at least once, so a follow up may take some time.

Thanks Ryan. The U-Haul will still be a viable backup, but saving money+time with a trailer would be great.

But the hitch... what about a hitch?
Also found this, looks worth a read.

http://www.reddit.com/r/camping/comments/18u51k/first_timer_in_boundary_waters_need_advice/

Hey Jeff, I'm assuming at least you're doing research on the location/trip. Everything I see people say is bring maps. Laminated detailed maps. One guy went with his dad that has been going since the 80's and even he got lost. They said to try and enlarge certain parts of the map so you have more detail in what you're looking at. I have a really junky printer but I can try and print a few out if you want.

They also recommend that we spend the extra money per day and get a fiberglass canoe, the aluminum ones are loud, annoying and scare away wildlife. Everyone complains about the bugs. So many bugs. Recommended to wear long sleeve shirts/ pants to cover your skin as bug spray isn't as effective.

Just got off the phone with Ms. Stone. My God that woman loves the boundary waters. She basically went over stuff we already knew, said to no matter what bring: A tent, water filter, an extra tarp because it rains a lot, rain pants because canoeing in wet pants is no fun.

She also said that even if you have all your gear in one bag, like a garbage bag liner, you should still put everything that you NEED to stay dry in separate smaller bags, like socks, phone, maps, permits, underwear, really any clothes, food. Sleeping bag, etc.

She mentioned that of all places Aldis has amazing deals on food that is excellent for backpacking. Walgreens has the best prices on nuts and dried fruits. But that if we want to all go in we should get bulk from costco or sams club. She mentioned that fishing is amazing and no matter what we should bring a pole/tackle and eat delicious fresh fish. She mentioned that we *Can* bring food like cheese and other things that need to be kept cold by tying it to the canoe and paddling with it in the water. It's more work but it will keep cold.

Anything else I remember I'll just edit in, hope the info helps!

Looking at the weather (I just searched Ely, MN) so far, it looks like Sunday and Thursday are going to be rainy. Other than that, it appears we may have some decent weather while we're canoeing through the waters.