Greetings,

Myself and a buddy are doing our first BWCA trip and we are entering at Little Isabella River, Entry Point 75. My concern is this is right near the Pegami Creek Fire area. I was wondering if anyone had suggestion on routes? While it would be very amazing to see the rebirth after the fire, I would like to try and avoid it for most of our trip. It's looks like heading northwest into Bald Eagle Lake might be a good option. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We will be out 5 days btw.

Any feedback yet? Thinking about doing the same trip in June.

From the Little Isabella river you will only see a little of the burn. The parking lot at the entry point was not hit by fire, nor was any of the forest road from Hwy 1 to the entry. You will almost come across the burn as you paddle down the Little Isabella river to Isabella river. The fire roared just east of the river (the intersection of the two rivers). As you paddle towards Bald Eagle, you will leave the fire area completely and see no other Pagami Creek burn unless you portage your way to the lakes north and east of Bald Eagle. There is also burn in that area from a 2006 fire.

If, by chance you paddle east on the Isabella river to Quadga, you will see the full-blown effect of the fire. Nature is doing her part already and the forest floor will be a bright green. Birch and aspen trees will have already germinated in many parts. Here's a link of the fire perimeter.
http://www.inciweb.org/incident/map/2534/16/

Tom

Thanks for the info. We are looking for the paths less traveled, so any suggestions on whcih direction to head once we hit the Isabella, West or East? Also, awhile back someone had posted on I believe Turtle lake and Bald Eagle lake stating there is a sulfide mine around the area and you can hear it in some locations, we would like to avoid this as well. Again, thank you for the response, I really appreciate it.

quote mngirl51: "Any feedback yet? Thinking about doing the same trip in June.


"

We will be there the week of June 17. We were looking for entry points that had the least amount of permits issued per day, so 75 seemed like a good fit. Let me know what trip plans you find, we are still tossed about how far to go, then turn around and exit the same entry point. Thanks.

Little Isabella river will provide good solitude on your entry day.
However, the area you are traveling into will have traffic, especially Bald Eagle and Gabbro. Since they are BWCA perimeter lakes, they get good traffic. If you travel east on Little Isabella, you will find solitude in part because the whole place is burned up. I'm not sure there are any open campsites on Quadga. It's pretty toasty.

To get to places less traveled, you'll need to paddle for a few days to the hardest places to reach. However, don't let the traffic worry you, it's still a nice place. Quetico would be the place to go if you want real solitude but that's not as easy, or cheap to get to as Bald Eagle.
Just enjoy your trip.

Tom

I was on Bald Eagle last summer and didn't notice any sounds

Went in entry point 75 and east on the Isabella to Quadga this last week. There are two sites "open" but only one that is usable. The one right across from the portage point is open and very usable, the other one that is open is totally burned, not much for areas for a tent.

If you plan on staying on Quadga get there early so you don't end up with out a site.

The Little Isabella had no fire damage.

About 2 weeks ago I entered at the island river and exited at the little Isabella river. 6 day trip. Everything E. of the junction of the little Isabella and Isabella looks like an atom bomb went off in there, (keep in mind this was before grass or even buds were on trees). The paddle down the little Isabella was not effected by the fire. The first night we stayed in the furthest W. of the 2 reopened sites inside of the burn area on the Isabella river, the remainder of the trip we base camped on the site furthest W. on the Isabella, just before the portage to bald eagle. Was a nice site we saw 2 people the entire time we were there, and 1 group of 4 the days we left and entered. There is also 1 other site on the Isabella that wasn't effected by the burn. That's between the little Isabella and the site we base camped out of.