Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Escape to Basswood
by baerseb

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 08/31/2023
Entry & Exit Point: Fall Lake and Beyond (EP D)
Number of Days: 4
Group Size: 4
Trip Introduction:
First time adventure into BWCA.
Day 1 of 4
Thursday, August 31, 2023 Took off from Fall Lake EP-24 around 9am heading north to our first portage into Newton Lake. Paddled thru Newton, portaged to Pipestone Bay, paddled north and portaged across Basswood Lake. The short paddle mostly east across this back bay lead us to our fourth and final portage. Once we were able to re-load and get out of the marshy bog on the east side of this challenging portage, we had about an hour more of paddling before reaching campsite 1632, straight north of Washington Island, around 4pm. After the long day of travel we spent the rest of the evening setting up camp, fishing from the shoreline, and eating dinner around the campfire. The downloadable Voyageur companion maps on the Avenza Maps app were extremely helpful. Strongly recommend, especially for first timers like ourselves.

~Fall Lake, Newton Lake, Basswood Lake

Lakes Traveled:   Fall Lake, Newton Lake, Basswood Lake,