I returned yesterday (8/13) from this trip. I had only a few days, so I did not make it in further than Pine Lake.

First of all, I enjoyed the trip tremendously. It was my first time in the BWCA. We entered Lake Vermillion at the Public Access in Rice Bay(?) - Northeast part of lake. We camped the first night on an island about 1 mile W/SW of the access. It was an unmarked campsite, but we were pointed there by some houseboaters. The site was adequate, it gave us another night on the water prior to our entry permit. Also, there are other sites available between the put in point and entry point 1(trout lake). I don't believe you need a reservation, first come basis.

The paddle across Vermillion was just fine. The lake isn't too wide in that area, so wind is not much of a factor. We lucked out and had wind behind us both in and out. We didn't fish during this paddle at all. Paddle is about 5-6 miles.

The 60-rod portage to Trout Lake was an easy up-and-over. A nice waterfall can be seen from the Vermillion side. Trout Lake is just plain big. We didn't spend much time at all on it, but the wind affected us on our return trip. We took the 240-rod portage between Trout and Pine Lake. Being a rookie, this was a tough one for me. (went much better on the way out) The portage is quite a bit uphill from the Trout side. Lots of tree roots and rocks on the trail. The Pine side of the portage is low and swampy. The portage has platform planks to walk on. It wasn't too wet when we went, but it could get worse.

Pine is a very pretty lake. Lots of islands. Little to none storm damage noticable. We had some trouble getting a site, as it was busy. We stayed in the campsite in the bay leading to Buck lake. Decent enough site. I don't have enough experience to know better. We had hoped to camp on the island, but both were taken (heard those were good sites). Explored some of the creek/stream leading towards Buck lake. It was pretty - seemed like a good moose area. If I had more time, would've further explored this stream, as well as, Pine creek leading to Chad Lake. Others have said the portage into Chad has good examples of storm damage.

The fishing on Pine was ok. We caught enough smallish walleyes for a good meal. One member of the party caught a 4.5 lb smallmouth. A fairly shallow and muddy bottom lake. Fish were anywhere you could find some rocks on the bottom. Fishing probably would've been better except for our inexperience/lack of knowledge of lake structure.

The trip back to our vehicles from our site on Pine was 5 hours. This was with a large party and inexperienced paddlers/portagers.

Hope this was helpful. Enjoy your trip!

Posted by JPW on August 14, 2000 at 13:09