We're considering a trip to the Brent / Suzanette area this spring.  Right now we're leaning toward a tow from PP to Back Bay, traveling through the falls and up the river to Moose Bay, Robinson, either McIntyre Creek or Cecil, McIntyre, Brent.  Based on some earlier posts, it sounds like the creek is quite the adventure...  On the other hand, I like the idea of traveling all the way up Robinson, which I've read is a neat lake.  We wouldn't get the chance to see the north end of Robinson if we decided to turn off at Cecil and avoid the creek on our way up to McIntyre.

Generally speaking, we're looking for the quickest route to the Brent area (fishing is our primary focus) and would like to get there mid day on day 2 with a night 1 on Robinson, but we don't want to miss out on extra special areas of the park if it means only traveling a slightly longer distance.  Last year's trip took us through Roland, Argo, Darky (I'm still working on the trip report...).  We considered a bottle portage entrance and continuing through Argo and Darky to Brent, but would prefer to avoid the overlap from last year's route. We've never travelled the Basswood River and thought it would be nice to see.

Assuming we take the tow to Back Bay and travel the river, are there any recommendations in choosing between McIntyre Creek vs Cecil on our way to McIntyre?  Is one noticeably quicker than the other?  And given that Brent/Suzanette is our destination, are there any other route's that we should be considering?

Thank you very much in advance for your help!!!

If my goal was Brent and Suzanette, I would tow to PP, and head through Bayley, Burke, and North Bay, thorugh Isabella and Side, and into Sarah and to Brent from there.  Last time that way we camped first night on Isabella (probably my favorite lake along with it's creek) and second on Brent.  Would prefer to get to Sarah on day one but kind of pushing it for me. I suppose you could tow to motor limit on Basswood and head up thorugh Nest to Side and so on, and save a little over the paddle thorugh Bayley and North Bay.

Maybe your route thorugh Robinson makes sense but looks longer.

Yikes! Maybe we'll avoid McIntyre Creek this trip.  I think we'll also save the Basswood River for another time. 

Based on the responses and a closer look at the map, we're now leaning toward a tow to Basswood, continuing on to Kett, then Nub, and staying on Robinson's north end island site on night 1. Day 2 we'll head up Cecil through McIntyre to either Suzanette or Brent on night 2.  We'll reverse this route on the way out, but this time camp on McIntyre instead of Robinson.  Or, since we'd like to get as far into the park on day 1, maybe we skip Robinson on the way up, spend night 1 on McIntyre and camp on Robinson on the way back?  In any event, I'd like to spend 1 night on both McIntyre and Robinson and hopefully get a few hours to explore and fish both.  Although, based on some of the trip reports I've read, it sounds like the Basswood to Kett portages will make for a long day 1...

Thank you for the info.  Very much appreciated!  Can't wait!

pine_knot wrote on Dec 4^th, 2012 at 12:12pm:

Much of the Basswood to Kett portage is over an exposed ridge ... easy walking so long as the conditions are dry ... but can be slippery when wet.  The no-name lake portages are steep on both sides ... you'll go up going in and down coming out (regardless of your direction of travel).

dd

Thanks Wally13.  Good to know that Basswood R is an option to still get to Robinson on day 1. 

I assume you meant that cone/elk are good options for western, and not eastern, Brent?  Although i guess this route gets you to eastern Brent fairly easily as well.