4 days in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area on massive Basswood Lake

With over 1 million acres of Minnesota's remote boreal forest and glacial lakes, I often call the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness God's Country, and it calls to me to return after my first visit last year. This year, we'll be accessing through Entry Point 26 to the northeast of the town of Ely. Our goal is Campsite 1635, where the Basswood Lodge operated until 1964 when it was dismantled and reassembled elsewhere. To get there will require seven miles of paddling across wood, hula, good, and basswood lakes, and four portages totaling a mile and a half. Unfortunately, Basswood Lake allows motorboats, which does take away from the seclusion we crave, but the vast maze of channels and bays that make up the lake offer endless opportunities for exploration. Our planned return paddle is 12 miles through Basswood Lake's back and Pipestone Bays, Newton Lake, and Fall Lake, plus four portages totaling a mile around a waterfall and rapids to Entry Point 24, where our other vehicle is parked. First up is the 3,200 foot portage 701 to Wood Lake. About to depart on Wood Lake with my sister Lori. Boundary Waters Canoe Area, 2024. Here we go. We're really doing it here. I think that's a tough trail. This is a good lake. I'm out of this mosquito-infested portage. Paddle on the other side quick. This got to Campsite 1635 on Basswood Lake. This is where the Basswood Lodge used to be, so there might be relics around of the lodge still. It's a beautiful campsite. I'm taking a video. Jackie preparing the smallmouth bass, some chanterelles, and beautiful. Thank you. I'll be good. At your leisure. Too leisurely. Some good smallmouth bass. Chanterelle is good too. Lobster mushrooms. It's hitting behind it. Oh, there you go. Burns so fast, but you got to have your fines ready. Man, that moss is sweet. It is. There we go. My crops are going to catch on fire. A little bit of a change of plans. We had a discussion, decided to shorten up the final day by leaving the Basswood Lodge campsite that we're at now and trying to find a campsite on Pipestone Bay somewhere. This will reduce the length of time that we have to paddle on the final day so that people can get home at a better time. Also, we checked out this portage 421, and it was really hard to get to. It was muddy. It was overgrown. It was steep. It'll just be a really challenging portage for us to have to carry the canoes, even though it was a really nice hike. Rather than going from the campsite up to the portage, we're going to go down and around sort of the way we came, and this will allow us to check out these logging camper mains. Then we'll go up into Back Bay this way, so we'll get to the same area, and then the rest of the return trip will be very 426. Cool. Beautiful beach landing. A little walk up to our site. Setting up camp. I think I need to put my tent right there. Toilet's back that way. Overlooks to the north down that path. And the main fire pit area over here. There he goes. I've got mixed feelings about this four-day trip in the Boundary Waters. In the end, we only found a few iron relics of the two lodge remains, but the logging camp remnants were impressive. The motors on Basswood Lake take away from the wilderness feeling that I hoped for. Even with high waters this year, we often found ourselves wading through shallows, so I wouldn't recommend this route in a drought. I do regret that I didn't take the time to paddle and see Pipestone Falls up close, or find the trail to the Jackfish Bay overlook. But the two amazing campsites made it all worth it. The first had a great landing and towering white pines, and the second a long beautiful beach and great views in all directions. Plenty of eagles and loons kept us company, and we had good luck fishing and foraging mushrooms. Mosquitoes and other bugs were rarely noticed. All in all, an enjoyable experience, but I'll probably seek more solitude via a different route elsewhere in future ventures to the Boundary Waters. Thank you for watching. I hope you'll comment, subscribe, and join me on my next venture.