6/29/26 – Jeremy Carl recently returned from a canoe trip in one of my favorite sections of the Boundary Waters and was kind enough to pass along his trip report along with some great photos. -Jessica
“June 20-21, 2026
The four of us left Hastings, MN about 4:45 am. We made it to Sawbill Outfitters around 10:30 AM after a few stops along the way. We grabbed our permit and loaded up two canoes and headed to the Kawishiwi Lake Entry Point. We got our canoes and gear all set and hit the water just past noon.
There was a group of 9 from a Wilderness Camp that were just getting their introduction to the canoeing world. They were also practicing swamping their canoes. They seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Today was a long day. It was about 7.5 hours of travel, and about 19 miles total including double portaging.
There was a lot of paddling. We did get slowed a little by a group of three canoes that clearly were on their first trip. On their first try through the portage from Kawasachong Lake to Townline Lake they left canoes and other gear scattered along the way. They also had two red coolers that I assume they somehow managed to maneuver over the portage eventually. We didn’t see them again, they were headed to Polly Lake. Otherwise the portages from Kawishiswi Lake to Amber Lake are relatively easy and straight forward. There aren’t many elevation changes.
We ended up on the Southern most site on Amber Lake, the one just out of the channel. We stayed here two nights. We arrived at camp around 7:30 pm. We did not feel like going in the boats again this day, so we did some fishing from camp. The forecast had no rain for today, so naturally we didn’t set up the tarp. And of course it rained for 45 minutes to a hour. We scrambled in the rain and dark, and did get the tarp up without issue. We were the only group on Amber Lake both night we stayed.
Sunday we fished all around River Lake(I think it’s basically just part of the Kawishiwi River). We did pretty good, we caught Walleye, Small Mouth Bass, and Northen Pike.
At night, around 11:15 pm we were looking out on Amber Lake, and there was this weird red glowing light just above the tree line horizon. It didn’t move at first, but after a few minutes it pushed off and disappeared in the direction of Thomas and Fraser Lakes. We weren’t sure what it was, but we did think it was in Orbit and not actually very close by.
Today was a much needed rest and fishing day, it was a good day!
Monday June 22nd
Today we moved North to the island site on Adams Lake. After gathering wood we went for a much needed swim. We fished from mid afternoon until after dark. We trolled and casted our way around the North half of the lake. We did ok, but Adams Lake is beautiful and we all agreed we would stay here again. We were the only group on Adams Lake tonight.
The site had tons of micro litter around. We found all we could and packed it with us.
Tuesday June 23rd, Wednesday June 24th.
Today was another long travel day, it took us about 6 hours to get to Little Saganaga Lake, then another hour or so to find a suitable site for the possible pending storms that the weather radio told us were heading our way. We did find an awesome site. Although it felt like we were the only group on Little Sag both nights, it’s hard to believe that we were since we only seen about a quarter of the lake.
The day today was a lot of portaging. The portage from the small pond after Boulder Lake up to Ledge Lake had a T intersection, we needed to turn right. Ledge into Vee Lake portage was a challenge but nothing crazy. There still weren’t many elevation changes, but this stretch was mostly overgrown and did have some mud, but nothing as muddy or overgrown as the stretch from Trail Lake to Wine Lake that we experienced last year. We never did find the actual portage from Vee to Fee Lakes, but we made it work.
Elton Lake has a burn from I think the John Elk Fire? It seemed much more in the early stages of regrowth than we seen on Little Sag and the Square Lake areas. I think all three of these burned areas are from different fires?!
We stayed at the site at the end of the peninsula about mid way up the West side of the Little Saganaga Lake. It was elevated and protected for the most part in all directions. We checked 4-5 other sites and although some were nice, none seemed like they work for us to be at for any kind of stormy weather. This ended up being an awesome site. We fished for a while but only caught one Northern Pike.
We stayed here for two nights. The storms did come a little bit overnight on Tuesday, otherwise we just got a little rain Wednesday morning.
We fished on and off throughout the day on Wednesday, but all the Lake Trout eluded us for now. Little Sag is a big lake, lots of water with deep holes, we didn’t travel far but we did put in a good amount of time. In the end we just got one fish on Little Sag. Our group of four has never had much fishing luck on big water.
Thursday June 25th
We packed up our gear and had a nice easy travel day down to Makwa Lake. It took us about a hour and a half. The portages were straight forward as we did these same three portages on Tuesday on the way to Little Sag.
Makwa is a beautiful lake. The cliffs are amazing. We even paddled past a loons nest just out of the water on the shore line of an island. She just watched us paddle by as we steered away not to put any additional stress on her.
We stayed on the rocky cliff site on the far west end of the lake. We had perfect weather for this site, it’s very exposed up on the cliff but that gave us 360 degree views of the night sky and area. We did take the short path up to the top of a 50 foot sheer cliff. It was was an awesome view.
We swam here after afternoon fishing. We all agreed this was a sweet site but no where to be for a storm. We did get a random 20-30 minutes of gusty wind but we managed without issue. We also had a very hard time finding fire wood on Makwa, but we did.
We ended up catching six Lake Trout total, we cooked one over the fire. Three of the four of us caught at least one Laker meaning for the second year in a row three of us hit the BWCA grand slam, all four of us did it in 2025. Sorry Mason, we will get you next year!
Friday June 26th
We fished one more time for about an hour this morning but had no luck. We went back to camp and packed up for the moving day.
Today we had our eyes on a site somewhere between Kivaniva Lake and Malberg. We aren’t yet ready for the zoo Polly Lake can be.
After about three to three and half hours we ended up on Malberg Lake. We took the site on the point as you enter the bigger part of the lake from the North East arm. It’s a nice site. It gets quite a bit of use. Two of us had stayed here back in 2020. It’s pretty much just how I remember it. We swam today as it was very sunny and warm. We fished from shore some and hung out in the afternoon.
We fished in the evening one last time and had decent success, but not as well as we had done in the past on Malberg.
Saturday June 27th
Today was what everyone who goes on a trip experiences, the last day and the paddle out. I wasn’t ready to go. It took us about four hours to get back to the parking lot at Kawishiwi Lake. We 1.5 portaged rather than double portaged as we had done the whole trip until now. I think it probably saved us about a hour or so. We met people traveling in both directions, all were very friendly and well organized for the most part. To our surprise, Polly Lake was pretty much empty from what we seen. Just proves you never know what you might find at the other end of the portage.
From the time we left Amber Lake Monday morning, until Friday afternoon on Malberg Lake, the only contact we had with others was a friendly solo paddler that let us know the island site on Adams Lake was all ours. We did see three canoes in the distance on Little Sag while we were fishing, and we had a group of 3 canoes stay at the far Northeast corner of Makwa the same night we were on the West end of the lake. We also seen them leaving in the morning just before us, but they were single portaging and we never had contact. But on Malberg as expected, we watched the boat parade go by off in the distance of the middle of the lake.
We had three meals of Walleye, and we cooked the one Laker. We had fires all seven nights. All 5 of our campsites were outstanding! We didn’t see a ton of wildlife, we didn’t even see a bald eagle until the second to last day. We did see lots of Beavers, Painter Turtles, Loons, and Mergansers.
We couldn’t of asked for better weather. We had minimal rain. Everyday day seemed to have highs in low to mid 70s, and lows in the upper 40s. The winds were not a factor, never more than 5-10 mph when we were on the water.
I can’t speak for all four of us, but for me the BWCA is my favorite place in the world. This time, it left me wanting more.
Overall it was 42-44 portages, 8-10 beaver dams and about 90 miles including double and 1.5 portaging and some fishing. The actual route was about 50-55 miles.
We caught Huge Bluegills, some of the biggest I’ve ever seen. Perch, Northern Pike, Smallmouth Bass, Lake Trout, and Walleye. The biggest Walleye were 22, 24.5, 25.5, and 27 inches.”
