Hi all! A very good, long-time friend of mine asked if I would take him into the BW, I suggested the Q and he thought that was a great plan too. He and I were whitewater raft guides together for many years so I know him and trust him to be a great tripping partner even though he has never been to Quetico. We are both rabid fishing fanatics and that will be a huge focus with as much time spent as we can with lures in the water.

We have our permit, our RABC, our outdoors cards and fishing licenses. We have reserved bunkhouse space with VNO coming and going- all systems go, we just bought our airline tickets and made rental car reservations too. Excitement building by the day! We are now meal planning and discussing gear and logistics.

Here is our route, at least in general, as with all things with canoe tripping, flexibility is key, we may slightly alter route at any time but this is our plan as of now. We will get to Ely on September 13 to do some final shopping and prep, we launch Friday, September 15 and return Saturday September 23. Here is our route- Prairie Portage, Birch, Carp, Sheridan, That Man, No Man, This Man, Other Man, Bell, Fran, Slate, Saganagons, Falls Chain, McEwen, McEwen Creek, Glacier, Turn, Edge, Rod, Dumas, Fauquier, Star, Arp, Louisa (Louisa Falls), Agnes, Meadows, Sunday, Basswood, Prairie Portage.

We are planning a tow to and from Moose and always looking for early fall fishing tips, places, compete recommendations, etc.

Great route. Did that exactly several years ago (I think Burke is between Sunday and Basswood if you're picky). We did it a little too fast - just 6 nights - but we didn't fish and it was in August. Your 8 nights in September with fishing sounds great. Saw no one between Falls Chain and Agnes. Loved Louisa (reportedly a great trout lake - Ontario's best I read somewhere.) Really great route.

One (out of only a few) trip reports I did. PP-Man Chain-Falls-Chain-McEwen Chain-PP

Thanks Bill, I appreciate your response

I did the same route in Sept. 2013 solo with my dog. I went clockwise and also had a layover on beautiful Emerald Lake towards the end. I wrote up a report also if interested. I hope you have dry conditions the day you portage from Louisa into Agnes. Louisa McEwen Man Chain loop

I really enjoyed this route especially Louisa to McEwen and then the Falls chain. I fought a headwind on the Man Chain and that kinda sucked. May the winds be at your back.

Only need to go through Burke if you want to trade two shorter portages and significantly more paddling to avoid the longer portage from Sunday into Sunday Bay of Basswood (oft referred to as "The North Portage").

A great route you've chosen.

That is an excellent loop, and one of my favorites. You have about 6 modest days of travel, plus layover times, with plenty of fishing spots and scenic areas. Very little "big water" and quite a few modest portages. You will like this trip.

Great route, Ken. I've been through some of it and enjoyed the area tremendously. The good part of your trip is going eastward on the Man Chain. I hope you have the same west wind that we bucked heading dead-on into it. You'll be to Saganagons in no time. :)

We camped on Fran. Decent campsite toward the west end of the lake.

Sounds awesome. I was planning a similar route but going up to Kawnipi, then out Agnes and the S chain, but I just changed my mind thinking I've never seen Emerald, McEwen, or Louisa. Still going up to Kawnipi for one night.
I'm going in on September 11th .

I was in the same area a couple years ago about the same time, and generally, the lake fishing was poor compared to the spring fishing, but what do I know? I did learn, you MUST bring topwater lures and have fun with the smallies, especially in moving water around Saganagons and the Falls chain! I can at least tell you that!

Hell, you might pass us up. If you see two red/white Krugers catamaraned up, or not, say hey and we can share fishing tips.

Joe

Fixin' to do that exact route (with a trip to Kawnipi for a night) in 9 days, just a few days ahead of you!

Joe

Just through part of that route last week. We did Falls Chain to Kawnipi, McVicar down to Agnes, then Louisa up to McEwen, Wet, Sidney, Gons and back out. Seemed like the route from Louisa up to McEwen takes time. Short portages, but lots of them and some are tricky. If you stay on Fauquier, looks like the site across from the Glacier portage looks to be the best. Mid lake site on the point looks most used but it is a rocky, uphill hike to site.

Just got back from my 9 day 8 night trip, virtually the exact route chosen by the original poster.

We went through Emerald, I wanted to see it.
We did the whole Falls Chain, but didn't actually launch on Kawnipi, just walked that final portage to Kawnipi to say we did it. There was a crushed canoe at the top of the falls to Kawnipi.

We did the 266 rod portage to McEwen instead of going back up the Falls Chain and going through Wet lake. Man, that is long!

McEwen and Louisa were simply infested with good sized lake trout! Just a short time trolling getting to or leaving the campsite and we had dinner!

We decided to skip the trip to Kawnipi, allowing more time for the McEwen to Louisa chain. The intent was to split it up into two days and stay on Fauquier. That didn't happen, maybe we missed it but there were no decent campsites at Fauquier, so we just hoofed it all the way to Louisa in one long hard day. We had a layover day in Louisa, which worked out very well because it was windy as hell that day!! Our last night was on Sunday Island in Bailey Bay. We caught eatin' sized fish every day and had fish for dinner every night. It was a spectacular trip! It appears few people do a loop through McEwen. We didn't see a soul between Sag and Bailey Bay. We took the route from Sunday lake through Burke to Bailey Bay rather than the North Portage...there is no need for that when the Singing Brook portage is like 5 rods and the portage Burke to Bailey is probably the easiest portage in the whole park!

by the way, NONE of the tp you found in the woods was ours. Folks are disgusting leaving it around, when all it takes is a lighter to take care of it! I even found a whole wet roll of TP and sorry, we had to leave that in a firepit I wasn't carrying it out.
Joe