BWCA 2021 Part 5: Boulder Lake to Little Saganaga Lake

[@MeetMeOutside]

Very good to see on the back side of a long winter ! Spring is coming ! Thanks for sharing ! Peace ✌️

[@MamasBasecamp]

Thanks for watching!

[@nibimocs]

Takes me back to my first 2 week solo a few years ago. I see those portages are just as brushy today as they were then. You definitely had a challenging time with the low water levels. I've never explored the western side of Little Sag so thanks for showing me what I've been missing! Loved seeing the loons dancing and that island just off your campsite was very photogenic. Now, I'm itching for soft water. Thanks for sharing.

[@MamasBasecamp]

I loved that campsite on Little Sag and also the one on Boulder

[@HikeCamp]

Boot and shoe eating mud... LOL Definitely hiking and canoeing... Poor person who has to carry the canoe on the portages. Beautiful sunrise!

[@MamasBasecamp]

Hike Camp - thanks for watching, hope you are well!

[@bigsky2081]

Very nice surprise for my lunch hour! I have been on that route many times but always in spring so I haven't witnessed the nasty water at Ledge. It's a tough route. Beautiful filming and nice music, looking forward to your next video. Thank You!

[@MamasBasecamp]

Thanks for watching, because of the drought Ledge was lower than usual. Sure was a fun day!

[@zzyzxxzzyzxx]

Nice video. We just got back from a loop from Round/Brant down to the pictographs on the K river, back up thru Adams/Boulder and then out this route to Little Sag/Mora/Tuscarora and Missing link back to Round. Water was a lot higher this year. The marsh walk where you lost a boot and shoe was impassible. Thankfully there's a good trail that skirts west around the bog. Double portaging the Boulder to Ledge and later Tuscarora to Missing Link portages wasn't much fun. The water in Ledge was clear, but encountered fresh bear scat at the campsite which we still used for the night without incident.

[@MamasBasecamp]

Sounds like a fantastic trip. You covered a lot of ground! Was it busy or quiet?

[@gregschuler1596]

Going to Boundary Waters first time in September. Any suggestions for a five night trip?

[@MamasBasecamp]

Depends how much ground you want to cover, the physical abilities of the group, and how hard so you want to work? Also depends if you want to Basecamp and fish, trip around, etc.

[@TechnicallyRugged]

I've been dying for some footage of this area! I'm planning on visiting with some friends in June, and we're planning on doing Adams to Lil Sag in a day. Did you have any trouble with pathfinding on the Boulder-Ledge portage, or Vee-Fee? I have read some reports that state that the Boulder-Ledge portage has some false turnoffs, and the portage can be hard to follow on Vee-Fee because of the swamp in the middle. Just wondering if you had any difficulty with these or if they were fairly straightforward. Also, how wiped were you after that day? I have a feeling it's not exactly a walk in the park doing that leg in a day. Awesome trip so far, looking forward to seeing the rest!

[@MamasBasecamp]

Yes, it was a hot day so we were ready to be done. It took us about 4.5 hours single portaging if I recall. Boulder to Ledge, in that direction starts out decent, but the part were it's sometimes a float through was rough due to the mud factor. Both my husband and daughter postholed in the mud up to their knee. Then right after the part were they sunk, we couldn't see where the trail went. Turned out it goes up a short but steep hill. If we hadn't read the complaints about that hill we wouldn't have known to go that way. But we remembered the complaints on the forums and that's how we found which way to go. After that little steep part the portage is decent again. When we got to Ledge it was very sinkable in the mud again, but it's not always like that. The water was low because of the drought so we weren't able to get away with stepping from vegetation to the boat, had to step in the lake muck.

[@MamasBasecamp]

mamasbasecamp.blogspot.com/2021/11/together-in-bwca.html?m=1 I have more detail about the route in this write up. It's kind of long, if you just want to see the Boulder to Legde day skip ahead to day 7

[@TechnicallyRugged]

@@MamasBasecamp Excellent, thank you so much!! The water will be higher in June than in August, provided we don't have an absurd drought, so we should hopefully have less trouble going from Adams to Boulder, but the dried up portion of Boulder-Ledge might be too wet to just keep portaging (which I'd probably rather do than do a little load-unload float through). Probably the same story with Vee-Fee too... but it sounds like it wasn't too hard to follow. Thanks again for the great video and photos; they'll certainly help with my trip and hopefully we still make it from Adams-LilSag while double portaging without killing ourselves or each other. :) I look forward to it.

[@MamasBasecamp]

@@TechnicallyRugged vee- fee was no problem for us.

[@nibimocs]

@@MamasBasecamp Just had to add... the Ledge portage landing is muddy whether the water is high or not. At least that was my experience when I went through there (the other direction).