Fishing: Northern Pike (small ones in the creek - visual observation)
Maps: Fisher F-5; McKenzie #20
Creek Depth: Over 5 feet in places
Fire History:
Creek Length: About 13.5 miles.
Campsites: None
Wildlife Seen on Visit: None
Last Visited: May 16, 2021
Creek Elevation: Starts at unnamed pond just north of Sunlow Lake at about 1835 feet. Flows for about 13.5 miles before draining into the Temperance River at about 1595 feet above sea level. Creek loses about 240 feet of elevation over 13.5 miles. Creek passes through Sunlow Lake, Sunhigh Lake and Wonder Lake in the BWCA. Also passes through Paoli Lake. Creek is only navigable in BWCA between Sunhigh Lake and Wonder Lake. Not possible to continue past Sunhigh Lake to Sunlow Lake
Plouff Creek is named after a family that used to live at the intersection of The Grade and Plouff Creek. Bill Plouff used to have a cabin on Kelly Lake. He was a silver prospector and had a mine shaft near the cabin off the Jack Lake portage (Source: Sawbill: History and Tales - Mary Alice Hansen).
The creek is only slightly wider than your canoe in places as it snakes through a lowland forest containing a lot of black spruce and some birch. There is one section of the river that requires portaging (easiest along the right side) unless the creeks water levels are very high. For the most part though, the creek is passable. If you have a heavily loaded canoe, you may bottom out somewhat regularly. Much of the creeks banks are made up of peat bog. There are some sandy spots in the river where the bottom is hard, but mostly the creek flows over a deep mud bottom which makes getting out of the canoe difficult. Expect to encounter a small beaver dam or two or three paddling between Wonder Lake and Sunhigh Lake. You will also probably have to do a liftover portage (1 rod) as you enter Sunhigh Lake. There is a sandbar here.
If you are planning to use the campsite on Sunhigh Lake, note that it is a terrible site. There are two campsites on Wonder Lake too. The southern campsite on that lake is quite nice. The north campsite on Wonder Lake is quite poor.
Traveling Plouff Creek (Upstream)
Paddling (and portaging) along Plouff Creek from Wonder Lake upstream to Sunhigh Lake. You can see the mid-stream portage (the longer one) from about 9:30 to 12:30 period in the video. The simple one rod portage over the sandbar into Sunhigh Lake is near the end of the video.
The sandbar that you must lift your gear over that has formed where Plouff Creek flows out of Sunhigh Lake. The creek flows off to your left here and then meanders its way through the peat bog filled valley in the background toward the left of your view.
Traveling Plouff Creek (Downstream)
Paddling (and portaging) during an occasional light rain along Plouff Creek. The trip along the creek is from Sunhigh Lake downstream to Wonder Lake. As for the portages along this creek, the one rod portage over the sandbar from Sunhigh Lake is at the start of the video. Not much too it. The longer portage midway down the creek starts at about the 5:00 minute mark in the video and ends around the 7:15 mark.
View of the sandbar as seen from other side of the creek. Plouff creek is flowing to your right in this view. Sunhigh Lake is on your left. This is a 1 rod portage.
Route Connections for Plouff Creek
From Plouff Creek you can paddle into either Sunhigh Lake or Wonder Lake. The creek is only navigable in the BWCA between these two lakes.
