In search of an lively 4-day itinerary in your Boundary Waters journey? This BWCA itinerary provides a base camp and lively day journey paddles, fishing suggestions, and scrumptious wholesome camp meals recipes. Don’t go away dwelling with out this itinerary subsequent time you end up headed to the BWCA!
WHAT A TRIP. We’re again from our BWCA canoe and tenting journey, and what a beautiful lengthy weekend it was. We liked this route, with a base camp and day journeys a lot, we thought we’d share our precise itinerary with you for subsequent time you’re planning a 4-day journey to the Boundary Waters.
However earlier than we get into the itinerary, can I simply say how completely great and rejuvenating it’s to depart the hustle and bustle of every day life within the metropolis and get off the grid to spend some good ol’ QT along with your folks?! Lee, Lin and I’ve traveled collectively to some superb locations, and have been with out cell reception for day journeys in Nationwide Parks, however this was the primary time that the whole Staff Match Foodie was utterly unplugged and off the grid for an extended weekend. And guess what? Shit didn’t hit the fan whereas we had been gone, and though none of our Instagrams revealed whereas we had been out, THAT’S OKAY. We left feeling refreshed and able to tackle our week.
Okay, let’s get into the journey deets:
How A lot Time We Had within the BWCA
Our journey in whole was Wednesday – Sunday, however we drove as much as our clothes shop on Wednesday night time and paddled in to the BWCA Thursday morning and paddled out on Sunday. Particularly:
We left the Twin Cities noon on Wednesday and drove as much as Duluth for a late lunch and a beer at Canal Park Brewery earlier than persevering with on our voyage to Grand Marais. We stopped in Grand Marais to stretch our legs and seize a beer at Voyager Brewing, and if you happen to’re ever at Voyager, you NEED to get their Reuben Egg Rolls. From Grand Marais we headed up the Gunflint Path to Seagull Outfitters.
Our return paddle on Sunday (extra on that later on this publish!) was a fast 3 hours, so we had been again at Seagull by noon on Sunday.
What Clothing store We Used / Our BWCA Entry Level
We outfitted via Seagull Outfitters on the Gunflint Path, and we couldn’t have had a extra optimistic expertise! We knew we had been going to be arriving later within the night on Wednesday, and didn’t need to should rush to paddle out and get to an open campsite earlier than darkish. So, we opted to take our time getting as much as Seagull and sleep of their bunk home on Wednesday night time.
We reserved our allow via Seagull a couple of month earlier than our journey, however we’d suggest reserving yours as quickly as you may have your journey dates and know what entry level you need to use.
Then on Thursday morning we chatted via route choices with the extremely educated employees at Seagull. Primarily based on the climate, and what our priorities had been for the journey, we had been in a position to resolve on one of the best route for us. We knew we wished:
- A base camp that allowed us to do enjoyable day journeys with out packing up our entire campsite day-after-day
- Solitude (get us far sufficient into the BWCA to get away from crowds)
- Good fishing choices
- A shady campsite
What We Did within the BWCA
After paddling out of Seagull Outfitters (entry level 54), we made the lengthy trek throughout Seagull Lake in sturdy headwinds, which took us nearly 4 hours. A a lot tougher first lake paddle than we had anticipated, however we wished to proceed on to Jasper Lake the place we deliberate to arrange our base camp for our journey. Our route was:
- Seagull Lake to
- Alpine Lake to
- Jasper Lake (base camp)
There have been 2 portages on this route from Seagull Outfitters to Jasper Lake. One strenuous 105 rod portage from Seagull to Alpine, after which a shorter, however fairly steep, 45 rod portage from Alpine to Jasper. As soon as we arrived on Jasper, we opted for the northern most campsite, which was located atop a stupendous cliff with a rock staircase as much as the positioning, and a comparatively flat space across the again aspect of the cliff to take our canoes out of the water on the finish of the day. We LOVED this campsite, because it supplied loads of shade for every of our 3 tents, in addition to a fireplace pit / cooking grate proper on the cliff overlooking the lake. The latrine was in good situation and situated about 100 yards away from the campsite itself. Swimming was nice at this web site as properly with a rocky backside and fast drop off with no mud.
Since we arrived later within the night on Thursday to our web site on Jasper, we knew we wished to spend time experiencing Jasper on Friday. We swam and paddled round Jasper, and each fly fished and fished with deeper water spoons and jigs. Smallmouth had been most ample on Jasper, and we caught them each from shore and from the canoe. Seagull was tremendous useful in explaining how deep and the place fish had been situated on our route based mostly on the hotter season and the climate we’d have on our journey. It was very nice to have a “enjoyable” day like this, particularly after such a strenuous paddle in on Thursday. This gave us an opportunity to not solely fish and paddle round Jasper, however loosen up in our hammocks, learn and play video games.
On Saturday, we wished to do an even bigger day journey, so we bought going comparatively early, and took off on the next out-and-back route:
- Jasper Lake to
- Kingfisher Lake to
- Ogishkemuncie Lake to
- Mueller Lake to
- Agamok Falls (after which retrace again to Jasper)
From Jasper to Kingfisher, there was a brief 25 rod portage. Kingfisher was positively the smallest lake we had been on in our whole journey, however was nonetheless lovely. We used this lake as a pass-through and didn’t fish. Then from Kingfisher to Ogish, there was one other brief 38 rod portage. We spent not less than a couple of hours on Ogish paddling and fishing and simply having fun with the day earlier than doing our final portage, an 80 rod, from Ogish, to Mueller. After paddling throughout Mueller, we left our canoes on the portage between Mueller and Agamok Lake and hiked as much as the Kek Bridge which overlooks the Agamok Falls. This got here extremely really useful by our clothes shop and we’re so glad we added on this little hike to the falls!
General, we LOVE LOVE LOVED this present day journey! Whereas on Ogish, we paddled previous the fireplace line from the Cavity Lake Fireplace of 2006, and it was unbelievable to see the distinction within the tree line and development. We’d suggest packing lunch and permit your self a full day for this journey.
On Sunday morning we bought up early, packed up camp and headed out for what we knew may very well be a 6+ hour paddle again to Seagull, however the winds had been on our aspect this time, and our return paddle solely took us 3 hours.
Boundary Waters Meals and Drinks
It in all probability doesn’t come as a shock with this group, however we ate WELL within the BWCA. Every couple deliberate a breakfast and a dinner after which we had been all on our personal for lunches and snacks. Every day we had a heartier breakfast and dinner after which lighter lunches and snacks (assume EPIC bars, RXBAR, path mixes, PB&J tortillas, and dried fruit). This stored our meals packs comparatively the identical weight and allowed for a enjoyable selection in meal prep, cooking and clean-up.
Thursday Meals
Thursday morning earlier than we paddled out of Seagull, we had a hearty breakfast on the Gunflint Lodge down the highway on the Gunflint Path. After consuming at this quaint lodge, we’re already planning a cross nation ski journey right here for this winter.
This primary dinner at our campsite dominated. We sous vide after which froze steaks in a Ziploc at dwelling earlier than we left that then acted as an ice pack on our paddle out, and had been completely thawed by dinner. We paired that with immediate mashed potatoes (simply add water!) and grilled contemporary asparagus. So scrumptious!
Friday Meals
Our Friday breakfast allowed us to have some contemporary elements as properly. We packed eggs (which we cracked at dwelling and saved in a Nalgene), smoked venison bacon that didn’t should be refrigerated and potatoes and onions. Understanding the climate was going to be sizzling whereas we had been within the BWCA, we wished to make use of the eggs on our first or second day to keep away from them semi-cooking within the warmth. And the potatoes and onions positively added some weight to our packs, however we knew we’d solely be carrying them a method, so #worthit. We lower the potatoes into bigger chunks and diced the onions earlier than including spices and olive oil and wrapping in foil to cook dinner over our grate at our campsite. We scrambled the eggs over our MSR in a pot, and crisped up the smoked bacon over the grate as properly.
For dinner we had vegetable tikka masala packets from Dealer Joe’s paired with cous cous and naan bread. We added dehydrated hen and greens to the tikka to get a bit of extra protein on this meal, and cooked it throughout our MSR’s in bigger pots.
Saturday Meals
Pancake day! We used Kodiak Truffles simply add water pancake combine and added dehydrated blueberries from Dealer Joe’s to make blueberry pancakes. We packed small containers of peanut butter and maple syrup, and cooked the pancakes over our MSR. We additionally heated up a bundle of lil smokies sausage.
For dinner we had hen burrito bowls and toasted tortillas. We used AlpineAire’s burrito bowl packs and added some contemporary purple and yellow peppers and the remainder of our potatoes that we foil packed over the fireplace. These had been scrumptious!
Sunday Meals
Being our final meal earlier than paddling out of the BWCA, we opted for a freeze dried camp meal of Mountain Home biscuits and gravy and a Mexican hash. These had been calorie dense, however stored us full for our whole paddle out.
Drinks
We had a 10L gravity bag for water filtration that we used at our campsite, which was 100% price shopping for for this journey. And used Aquamira for our day journeys. As for different drinks, we introduced Nuun tablets so as to add to water once we wished, a MSR french press and hand grinder for contemporary floor espresso, bagged purple wine and plastic bottles of Fireball that had been each comparatively weightless (and empty!) on the best way out.
