HighnDry wrote on Oct 15^th, 2016 at 12:54am:

Thanks Marten. I thought of that way as well. I know at least one other canoeist who went up to Manitoba to enter Gardner from Beresford, if I remember correctly. He did Thief River Falls, then crossed the border due north and caught the highway south of 'Peg to then head east towards the park. I haven't mapquested any of this but I'd guess it would fall in your time range estimate.

There are several options but the others are harder to describe. Since I have a cabin in the area I often times cross at Warroad and end up accessing the trans Canada at East Baintree via a well maintained gravel road. Then I follow hwy 11 to Pine Falls.