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Choosing an Entry Point

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LuvMyBell

06/26/2012 05:53PM

Anyone have any interesting or unique ways of choosing an entry point?

I've pretty much done the EP's in the western region and am planning to go East next year. Since I don't know that area I figured I try a different way of choosing where to go. Any suggestions?

Paddle Faster....I hear banjo music

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kanoes

06/26/2012 06:02PM

ive always wanted to throw ep numbers in a hat and just pull one out, never have though.

i think bigfoot is blurry. (mitch hedberg)

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inspector13

06/26/2012 06:22PM

Look through some trip reports. You can find them grouped by EP in the my.bwca.com section.

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boonie

06/26/2012 07:19PM

Not really interesting or unique, but I consider what I want and the length of time I have, and read through trip reports like inspector suggested, as well as looking through the guidebooks and browsing outfitter websites for their suggested routes. I usually do that in the winter, then go ahead and procure my permit as soon as possible - it's only a few dollars anyway. Of course availability could be a consideration in a short-term scenario. I try to go in a different EP each year and mostly into a whole new area.

Last year was my first trip to the east side (Gunflint). I had to change my entry a few days before because of closures due to the Pagami Creek wildfire. I'm doing another Gunflint trip this fall.

Maybe I should put a map on the wall and throw darts at it while blindfolded ;).

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RainGearRight

06/26/2012 07:24PM

quote kanoes: "ive always wanted to throw ep numbers in a hat and just pull one out, never have though."

I like this idea.

One way is to just pick an area, gunflint, Isabella, ect. Drive up and pick from the open permits at the ranger station, buy a map and take off.

There's always money in the banana stand.

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LuvMyBell

06/27/2012 07:02AM

quote RainGearRight: "quote kanoes: "ive always wanted to throw ep numbers in a hat and just pull one out, never have though."

I like this idea.

One way is to just pick an area, gunflint, Isabella, ect. Drive up and pick from the open permits at the tamer station, buy a map and take off. "

I like the spontaneity of this approach.

I wonder if I could get the others in my group to go along with it - it doesn't allow for any pre-planning.

I am planning to do a solo trip one of these years and this is definitely an option for choosing my route then.

Paddle Faster....I hear banjo music

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Spartan2

06/27/2012 07:48AM

We have used a variety of methods. Sometimes we have looked at the guidebooks and picked out a route that looked interesting, often tweaking it to make it more to our liking. ;-)

Sometimes we have had to change our plans, as in the year of the Romance Lake fire when we ended up taking a trip out of Crane Lake on a Lac La Croix only permit because that was all that was available on the day we wanted to go in.

On occasion we have just looked at an area and said, "Well, we have never gone in around here before." That is what we did last year when we took a few days at Kawishiwi/Square/Kawasachong right before it burned. I'm glad we did that.

And sometimes we decide that we would like to go back to a place we enjoyed before, so we plan a trip to return to a favorite spot. We are doing that this year in September. I hope to camp on my favorite campsite on Cherokee one more time.

In our paddling history, we have traveled all but a couple miles of the US/Canadian border that lies within the BWCA. For a long time we concentrated upon border lakes. Before 1992 we always entered from the Ely side. Since then we have been more likely to do a Gunflint trip, but not always. Had to try Sawbill, had to return once to a Crane Lake trip, and then there was last year with Kawishiwi. We enjoy variety, I guess.

Interspersed in there are a couple trips into Quetico, a couple of trips in Algonquin (small, short ones), and one foray into the Temagami area.

It's all good. Just getting to go is the good part. :-)

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sunnybear09

06/27/2012 09:47AM

I look for the least used (see-"New Entry Point Usage Data" at the bottom of the Home page), most difficult EPs with tough portages at the beginning to achieve some separation from the crowds, then double down with early and late season entry. Cuts down on the stress of finding campsites and keeps a bit more solitude in the mix. After that I research the fishing potential by combing through the fishing forum, DNR lake finder, and trip reports and focus my destination campsites around the best probable fishing locations. Then go solo.

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luv2pack

07/05/2012 06:13AM

We threw darts at a map one year. None landed right on an entry point, but they were close. Four of us threw a dart, so we picked the best of the four we had to chose from.

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luv2pack

07/05/2012 06:23AM

Outfitters have also given us some good ideas. They know the entry points and can guide you to a spot that fits what you want in a trip:)

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Rapid Runner

07/05/2012 08:19AM

all the map number with entry points on them go into pieces of paper then put into a jar.we pull one number a year and thats where we go.

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LuvMyBell

07/08/2012 01:26PM

quote Rapid Runner: "all the map number with entry points on them go into pieces of paper then put into a jar.we pull one number a year and thats where we go."

Once you select an EP # from the jar, does it go back in the jar as a candidate for future trip selection?

Do you include all the EP's in the jar or are there cetain EP's you omit from the start because they just don't interest you?

I wonder if anyone using this method , or any other method for that matter, have done all the BWCA EP's at least once? I would think that would be a great accomplishment.

Paddle Faster....I hear banjo music

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Rapid Runner

07/09/2012 07:58AM

on the paper we pull out this is and example of the info on it :

F-9: EP;04,06,07,08,19,20,22,23,77,78

fisher map# and the entry points on it.

then from there i pick and entry point. the entry point gets crossed off the paper.

F-9: EP;04,06,07,08,19,20,X,23,77,78

and then get put into a seperate container of maps visited. when she gets all the maps, im betting we go to entry points and we start over with the paper picking so then we would just pick the paper again, choose and entry point, and then cross it off. from there it could be done two ways. leave it out and go thru the map numbers again or toss it back in so that same map with unvisited entries has a possibilty to be chosen the next year. i think ill worry about that when we get thru the maps.

I did leave out F-31 and F-32 maps.

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