» Display Hope Lake Map

» Display scrollable USGS Topo Map of Hope Lake

» Show Simple Hope Lake Map

Hope Lake

Fungus Lake PMA

This is the second largest lake in the Fungus Lake Primitive Management Area. Hope Lake is fairly easy to access through Hope Creek from Lake Insula via paddling and a few portages. The lake to the northwest of Hope Lake is commonly unnamed, but I refer to it on this website as North Hope Lake. From Hope Lake, the 1993 Fisher F-4 map shows a 40 rod portage to the south of the creek that connects these two bodies of water. Closer to Lake Insula, the same Fisher map displays a 50 rod portage along Hope Creek. Even without visible portages, Hope Creek appears relatively navigable from Lake Insula into Hope Lake.

Almost all of Hope Lake's shoreline was burned by the 2011 Pagami Creek Fire. However, there is a small area of unburned forest along the northeast shoreline of Hope Lake and this happens to be where one of the old maintained campsites used to be. Is it still there?

Note that Faith Lake in the Pitfall Lake Primitive Management was called Hope Lake in circa 1964 Minnesota DNR survey maps.

This area was scorched by the 2011 Pagami Creek Fire that burned much of the southwestern part of the BWCA and was the largest fire in recorded history at about 100,000 acres (almost 10% of the entire BWCA).

There was a large fire in this area around 1863-1864. This fire is known as the North Kawishiwi River/Alice Lake/Cypress Lake/Saganaga Lake Complex. This burn began south of the current BWCAW's southern boundary near the town of Isabella, Minnesota.

Approach to Hope Lake

The entire approach into Hope Lake is along Hope Creek and through an unnamed lake to the northwest sometimes called North Hope Lake.

Bushwhack to Hope Lake

The bushwhack into Hope Lake is through Hope Creek. While it is a fairly long paddle in from Lake Insula, it does not appear to be overly challenging making Hope Lake a good destination for penetrating further into this PMA.

Exploring Hope Lake

It would be worth looking around for the three campsites on this lake. In particular, the campsite along the northeast shoreline, which appears to have narrowly avoided the 2011 Pagami Creek Fire, seems to offer some promise. There is a small rapids to negotiate on the south side of the lake if one decides to continue up Hope Creek towards South Hope Lake.