#Boundary waters update#

This is the backcountry site that our group chose, specifically because it was an island campsite, and if you want to stop your researching into other backcountry sites here, I wouldn’t blame you.

#Boundary waters update#

Please let me know if his number no longer works in the future, so I can update this blog. After calling a few others on the National Park list for commercial services, we weren’t quoted anything for under $200, many times $250. He’s a very nice older gentleman who we found to be the cheapest on the lake.

He also said, “Yup! That sounds like Larry!” Phil charged $125 both ways for our entire group of 4 to get to the Locator Lake Trailhead after only scheduling with him the evening before. Luckily, when we arrived at the Lake Kabetogama Visitor Center the day before our trip to pick up our canoe key, I found a guide to get some advice from who ended up giving me Phil’s number. We first dealt with Larry's Voyageurs Tour and Taxi who at first told me $30 per person two weeks before my trip, and then the night before, he changed it to $50 per person. Give this number a call before anyone else to see if he might be able to help you out. Voyageurs Water TaxiĪs for choosing a water taxi, my group had a bit of a run around with one guide, but I could not recommend Phil Hart more +1 (218) 240-1092. The last major advantage for Voyageurs compared to the BWCA is that each backcountry campsite in Voyageurs has only one per lake, meaning that your party will be the only group staying on a specific lake for as long as your reservation. All backcountry reservations are made on. Trust me, even after a quarter mile, a heavy canoe gets old quick.Īs for the National Park, you essentially pick/reserve your desired backcountry campsite, choose the appropriate amount of canoes for your group size (one is included in the initial reservation), and schedule an appropriate water taxi to get you to the trailhead for your hike. Being the case, Voyageurs completely takes out the need to haul in a canoe, whether it be your own or rented, which is something that to do in the BWCA, you’d have to carry in after launching at your drive-up lake. I say this because the National Park pre-stages canoes on the interior lakes for the backcountry in order to keep invasive species from entering their waters. While in the long run, a trip to the BWCA for a Minnesota resident can be far cheaper, the convenience of how the National Park is managed tends to be a much easier less of a hassle kind of experience beyond the initial planning. The National Park is by far easier to plan for than the BWCA.

If you are an out-of-state resident and are just learning about the BWCA for the first time here because you wanted to read about Voyageurs, I’d say stick with Voyageurs.