I am taking 6 scouts and another adult to the BWCA June 10-13. I will be the only one with BWCA experience. We plan on starting at EP 14 (LIS) and heading to Shell and hopefully Con Island for a night. from there to Lynx and Heritage.

The question: Should I turn this (what was going to be an in and out) trip into a loop and take them on the portage from Heritage into Loon? The reviews suggest that 221 rod portage is longer than 221 and ranks high on the difficulty list. Cowdoc suggested it was a 9.

If I did that, then they would have to come back down the river out of Loon to Lower Paunnes and the 110 rod portage by Devils Cascade which has mixed reviews on level of difficulty.

I don't want to do both the 110 into Lower Paunnes and the 220 into Upper Paunnes on day we exit. I think that will be too much for them.

This is a four day trip. In on Friday morning...out on Monday morning. Thoughts, suggestions? Thank you in advance.

not familiar with that area... but for only 4 days you want to keep it simple and fun and not a death march. with newbies everything will take longer. My first trip was 5 day 4 nights back in 1994. From that experience I decided that it was to short for all the work getting up there etc. Since then it has been 7 days 6 nights....gives you enough time to take a breath.

A nice simple loop would be go to Little Loon and camp there for at least one night, then if you want to move the next day you could go to Slim or even on up to Snow Bay and camp and fish, then come back via Beatty Portage and show them some history, then come back to Loon or to either of the Paunesses to make an easy day out. Pretty easy trip, hardest portage is from Little Loon to Slim. They can also see Devil's Cascade. Lots of options in that area.

Bruce