mav wrote:Great pics. Any more details? Do any fishing? Nice looking canoe!
Ahhhh the Canoe, Sweet ride it was. It's also a rental from Sawbill outfitters. Between my buddy and I we have 2 canoes, 4 kayaks and I also have 2 pirogues but renting the canoe accomplished a couple things.
1) it enabled us to drive a car that got 35 mpg instead of my truck or minivan. The savings in gas off set some of the $35/day cost of rental.
2) My canoe is a 16' royalex(fancy plastic) river style boat perfectly at home in swift waters and weighs in around 65lbs. I've never even laid eyes on my buddy's but it's an older fiberglass with an unknown layup. The rental was a 17' Bell kevlar tripper that weighed in at 43lbs. Much nicer for carrying and paddling on the lakes.
The canoe was the only gear we used not our own. We went in on Kawishiwa Lake on Sat. Morning (Transport supplied by Sawbill outfitters) At around 40deg. it was coldest morning of the trip. Kiwishiwa is the 10th busiest entry point in the BW and we saw folk coming and going all day. After 4 or 5 portages we arrived at Polly. Nice lake (picture #1) and the caught a couple decent fish with limited fishing but there was a pretty good crowd so on Day 2 we headed farther in and after another 3 or 4 portages we got to Phoebe. Some folk already there and the only campsites left we not the best and out of the wind. Wind = less mosquitos = I like a little wind. After a couple hours of messin around we decided to head on to Grace (2 short portages away). Beautiful lake, nice campsite and we spent all of day 3 and 2 nights there. Fishing sucked unless you like catching 8" smallmouth. Day 4 we humped the gear over a mile long portage to Beth (picture #2). My favorite lake of the trip. Smaller and very pretty, had it all to ourselves with the exception of a couple boats passing thru. Again, fishing stunk. Day 5 and on to Alton (1/2 mile portage). From what we had heard it had good fishing with fish being good sized. Must have been an off day, didn't catch a dang thing nor did anyone else. This lake is only 1 short portage and 1/2 hour paddle from Sawbill outfitters so around noon we set out to get some goodies (pop and munchies) and then returned to set around camp and fished the day away. We had planned on leaving the next morning but around 5 the clouds rolled in and the weather radio called for showers. Lets see? Fishing sucks, it's gonna rain. Do we stay another night just to sleep in the rain and pack up wet gear in the morning or leave early, pack up dry gear and sleep in a dry soft bed? We packed up, doused the fire and headed home. The last pic is at the last portage between Alton and Sawbill. BTW, Alton and Sawbill were pretty busy too. Sawbill is the third busiest entry point in the BW.
LK
Added info: We did the trip in 5 days/4 nights. It's really a 3 day trip unless the fish are biting and doable in 2 days/1 night if you like to go hard.
And, that is a nice looking canoe. Thanks for the pics. I've got to get out into the woods before I break something. 
i`ve lived in north central MN all my life and never been there 
i must be crazy. 
but would love to see that country someday.