BWCA Portage 423 (Basswood)

Came to this portage from the east (to west). Like many said, it was pretty mucky and hard to find. The floating bog was hard to get through, but we did it with 2 canoes as we pushed with our oars and scooted in unison. I told the 3 newbies not all portages are created equally. The west side was fine once we got through.

Came across from west to east. At the eastern end we found a very warm landing pond, with a 50' walk across floating bog material to get to open water where we could load the canoe. Two out of three of us went in up to our waists while bog hopping, but it made for a fun game trying to get your weight off one sinking piece and onto the next one without hitting something too small to support you.

The low water level makes this extremely difficult/impossible to access on the east side. I would recommend just going around until the water is back to "normal" levels.

Very difficult to locate from the East side. (Look for a large dead tree.) We met another group (single canoe, two fishermen) who couldn't find it. We finally located it, and let them go through first, as there were four canoes in our group. The landing on the East Side is very wet and boggy. The first of our group to get out found some branches to help the rest of us avoid sinking in the mud. A good bit of up and down on this one, as well as some large rocks in the path. Careful with those kevlar canoes!

I was guiding a group through here and none of them had been to the BWCA before. A couple local fisherman really played this portage up, scaring my group, but it really wasn't bad. A couple hills, a little water. An awful landing on the East side. One of my coworkers couldn't find this landing on the East side on a different trip. It's there, but it is set back into the weeds. Not a bad portage.

The last portage of the day. Probably felt longer than it really was. A couple ups and downs but not too difficult. One stream crossing. When the water is low there are stones that make the crossing easy.