I have been looking over my maps and the far east entry points have my curiosity piqued. I’m thinking of entry 69 John Lake that connects to East Pike Lake. There’s not a ton of trip reports on these areas and I was curious to have any advice on those entry points in lakes.

My prime interest is scenery and fishing.

Hopeful to spend this MEA weekend there. Will give a report when we return.

I stayed at the campsite on John Lake right by the portage last summer and it was a pretty nice site. It is not a deep lake but we found decent Northerns on the west side of the lake, and some really nice smallies in that bay past the rocks just before hitting the path towards the Royal River.

There is stellar scenery over there, but not nearly as much space so it can be harder to get away. I find that my rhythms change a bit east of the Gunflint with fewer miles and fewer portages per day. Also, fun fact, the three highest elevation gains for a BWCA portage are in a triangle there: McFarland to East Pike, Pine to West Pike, and Pine to Long are all in the 300 feet gained class. Wonderful area.

TreeBear: "There is stellar scenery over there, but not nearly as much space so it can be harder to get away. I find that my rhythms change a bit east of the Gunflint with fewer miles and fewer portages per day. Also, fun fact, the three highest elevation gains for a BWCA portage are in a triangle there: McFarland to East Pike, Pine to West Pike, and Pine to Long are all in the 300 feet gained class. Wonderful area. "

How much traffic is in this area? Lizz and Swamp are too traveled for me. I tend to go into the BWCA through the Sag area.

I did a solo through East and West Pike (among others). I really liked them and camped on both. The portages in are less traveled and a bit rough in places when I went through (deadfalls). I was there in late June, early July and not a lot of traffic. If you want to travel more, you can go to Clearwater and then cut up to Mountain Lake and head back east through Moose and the Fowls. The border lakes are beautiful!

I was just researching northern Moose Lake. Looks incredible, anyone been there?

Caught a 30" walleye on Moose Lake. Hooked a musky on East Pike, had it by the boat, got a good look at it, then and lost it when I went for the net. Was camped on West Pike and a moose came crashing into the lake at the opposite shoreline and started swimming across headed directly towards me, it got close enough I could hear its loud breathing. When I made a move to take a pic it saw me, did a 180 and swam all the way back across the lake and out where it came in. Always felt bad about that. It's a decent area, kind of hilly if I remember right, but it's been a while. Scenery is decent, lots of rocks & trees haha. Go for it.

I went in at EP 69 a few weeks ago. The scenery is great, no worries there. There are some options for fishing depending on what you're after. A day of hiking is also an option with the BRT nearby.

It was quiet. I only saw two small groups on the portage between East and West Pike coming from Clearwater Lodge and heading to Mountain Lake. Otherwise it was solitude for days.

For the first time I didn't find all the information on this site's map reliable (there's a portage between Little John and John now because of a beaver dam and the portage between East and West Pike is just fine despite some reviews). Clearwater Outfitters has good information on campsites and portages and BWCAWild is currently posting videos of this very route on their site and YouTube channel.

CanoeViking: "I was just researching northern Moose Lake. Looks incredible, anyone been there?"

I travel through there every year. Beautiful area. I don't fish so I can't speak to that, but I rarely see anyone on that lake. The portage between Moose and North Fowl has a lot of mud on the North Fowl end, but there is a side path about 40 yds. before the end that heads south and ends up directly in the little creek...avoids all the mud. Have to watch carefully for it, not obvious.

For scenery mountain lake is one of my bwca favorites.

How much traffic is in this area? Lizz and Swamp are too traveled for me. I tend to go into the BWCA through the Sag area. "

Like many parts of the BWCA, it can either be really busy or eerily quiet without consistent rhyme or reason to it, exempting out-of-season of course. I have had days where Alder/Canoe/most of Pine/ and most of Pike were full. Caribou fills up frequently as well as does Duncan and Rose on some of the peak days. Mountain's campsites are far enough apart that a full campsite can force you to travel a bit to the next one. I have also had some of the big lakes nearly to myself which is wonderful. It's just never that far from an entry point east of the Gunflint (everything is within a day's paddle) so it's pretty hard to really get away. That said, the eastern lakes can also have some attitude with long, skinny, deep lakes with lots of topography. If the wind kicks up, those lakes can wind-bound most groups which can get a little dicy at the beginning and end of the season. And the portages are hard enough to slow most groups down more than routes elsewhere (in a similar way to the other detached portion of the BWCA.)

jwartman59: "For scenery mountain lake is one of my bwca favorites.


This picture is AWESOME!


"

straighthairedcurly: "

CanoeViking: "I was just researching northern Moose Lake. Looks incredible, anyone been there?"

I travel through there every year. Beautiful area. I don't fish so I can't speak to that, but I rarely see anyone on that lake. The portage between Moose and North Fowl has a lot of mud on the North Fowl end, but there is a side path about 40 yds. before the end that heads south and ends up directly in the little creek...avoids all the mud. Have to watch carefully for it, not obvious."

Thank you for the heads up that’s the kind of information that is very helpful after doing the Larch creek entry point this year and going over 10 Beaver dams wading through thigh high mud at times. Very muddy portages are not very high on my wanting to do list.

TreeBear: "

How much traffic is in this area? Lizz and Swamp are too traveled for me. I tend to go into the BWCA through the Sag area. "

Like many parts of the BWCA, it can either be really busy or eerily quiet without consistent rhyme or reason to it, exempting out-of-season of course. I have had days where Alder/Canoe/most of Pine/ and most of Pike were full. Caribou fills up frequently as well as does Duncan and Rose on some of the peak days. Mountain's campsites are far enough apart that a full campsite can force you to travel a bit to the next one. I have also had some of the big lakes nearly to myself which is wonderful. It's just never that far from an entry point east of the Gunflint (everything is within a day's paddle) so it's pretty hard to really get away. That said, the eastern lakes can also have some attitude with long, skinny, deep lakes with lots of topography. If the wind kicks up, those lakes can wind-bound most groups which can get a little dicy at the beginning and end of the season. And the portages are hard enough to slow most groups down more than routes elsewhere (in a similar way to the other detached portion of the BWCA.)"

I have heard the wind on those lakes can be something else. If you were going to do a trip through the border lakes or up to Moose Lake, how many days would you tend to plan on for being windbound?

jwartman59: "For scenery mountain lake is one of my bwca favorites.




"

I agree it is a pretty awesome picture

CanoeViking: "I have been looking over my maps and the far east entry points have my curiosity piqued. I’m thinking of entry 69 John Lake that connects to East Pike Lake. There’s not a ton of trip reports on these areas and I was curious to have any advice on those entry points in lakes.

My prime interest is scenery and fishing.


"

Went in on John Lake at the beginning of June this year with hopes to stay at the site on John that is near the royal river. It was taken so we continued on. East Pike was beautiful and have been told by a couple of friends that there is excellent northern fishing there. But we kept on going back into West Pike and we stayed on the island campsite. We had good luck all around the shoreline with bass but aside from one small northern that was all we caught. Nothing huge but had fun catching lots of fish. There are Lake Trout in there too but we didn't find them.
The portages out of John are on the tougher side and are somewhat narrow but they aren't anything that should scare someone away. I think they felt way worse because it was pushing 90 degrees and the skeeters were out in force when we went through. We also attempted to go up to Gogebic Lake as well but what we thought was the portage was either extremely overgrown or it was just a game trail. So if you do go and you find it, let me know!

CanoeViking: "

TreeBear: "

How much traffic is in this area? Lizz and Swamp are too traveled for me. I tend to go into the BWCA through the Sag area. "

Like many parts of the BWCA, it can either be really busy or eerily quiet without consistent rhyme or reason to it, exempting out-of-season of course. I have had days where Alder/Canoe/most of Pine/ and most of Pike were full. Caribou fills up frequently as well as does Duncan and Rose on some of the peak days. Mountain's campsites are far enough apart that a full campsite can force you to travel a bit to the next one. I have also had some of the big lakes nearly to myself which is wonderful. It's just never that far from an entry point east of the Gunflint (everything is within a day's paddle) so it's pretty hard to really get away. That said, the eastern lakes can also have some attitude with long, skinny, deep lakes with lots of topography. If the wind kicks up, those lakes can wind-bound most groups which can get a little dicy at the beginning and end of the season. And the portages are hard enough to slow most groups down more than routes elsewhere (in a similar way to the other detached portion of the BWCA.)"

I have heard the wind on those lakes can be something else. If you were going to do a trip through the border lakes or up to Moose Lake, how many days would you tend to plan on for being windbound?
"

In all the many years of travel on those lakes, I have never been windbound. I usually travel west to east on Mountain and Moose.

TuscaroraBorealis: "Hopeful to spend this MEA weekend there. Will give a report when we return."

Tip of the Arrowhead

straighthairedcurly: "

CanoeViking: "

TreeBear: "

How much traffic is in this area? Lizz and Swamp are too traveled for me. I tend to go into the BWCA through the Sag area. "

Like many parts of the BWCA, it can either be really busy or eerily quiet without consistent rhyme or reason to it, exempting out-of-season of course. I have had days where Alder/Canoe/most of Pine/ and most of Pike were full. Caribou fills up frequently as well as does Duncan and Rose on some of the peak days. Mountain's campsites are far enough apart that a full campsite can force you to travel a bit to the next one. I have also had some of the big lakes nearly to myself which is wonderful. It's just never that far from an entry point east of the Gunflint (everything is within a day's paddle) so it's pretty hard to really get away. That said, the eastern lakes can also have some attitude with long, skinny, deep lakes with lots of topography. If the wind kicks up, those lakes can wind-bound most groups which can get a little dicy at the beginning and end of the season. And the portages are hard enough to slow most groups down more than routes elsewhere (in a similar way to the other detached portion of the BWCA.)"

I have heard the wind on those lakes can be something else. If you were going to do a trip through the border lakes or up to Moose Lake, how many days would you tend to plan on for being windbound?
"

In all the many years of travel on those lakes, I have never been windbound. I usually travel west to east on Mountain and Moose. "

My only true windbound ever was on Clearwater. It was a guided group and was for their safety more than anything (it was a group of fathers and sons.) We took big chop on Pine the day before and flew halfway down that to the portage to the Pikes. West Pike was a horrible headwind. We got thrown sideways into the north shore after fighting hard to stay straight. We finally strapped the canoes together and put the boys in the middle canoe with dads and I (the guide) in the outers. Still took us a few hours to get halfway down the lake. We got up early the next morning and made it to Clearwater with another three hours of paddling and stayed at the campsite in the bay. We did have plans for paddling to the portage and taking a hike but quickly ran into trouble. After rounding the stone shoal, mine was the only canoe that could stay straight, nonetheless making meaningful progress. They were quickly in jeopardy of the rocks so I called it. I've been fortunate that most of the big winds I have taken over there have been tailwinds!

jwartman59: "For scenery mountain lake is one of my bwca favorites.




"

Mountain Lake is awesome for sure. Kind of looks a lot like Rose Lake..