BWCA Portage: Lake Three to Spinnan Lake

Portaging from Lake Three

Your paddle into Spinnan Lake starts on Lake Three. You then proceed into a bay on the west shore of Lake Three which has seen heavy damage from the 2011 Pagami Creek Fire. Near the back of the bay, the creek to Spinnan Lake and Holiday Lake begins. Initially you find the creek quite wide, but it narrows quickly until it is barely wider than your canoe. You finally abandon the creek and your sturdy canoe as you follow the creek into a small copse of trees (the only trees near Spinnan Lake not turned into candlesticks) and come to a little rapids. You're ready to begin the bushwhack...

You find the start of the bushwhack is tricky and the trees and bad footing make it more difficult than it would seem. The footing is difficult because in the wake of the fire, a lot of low ground cover has grown up that makes it hard to see where you are planting your foot. Within the ground cover is a tangle of burned logs and heat cracked rocks. In a normal forest there is little growth on the forest floor, but now that the sun reaches the ground, all the baby trees are competing to grow the tallest quicker than the others. After determining that it will be a rough go, you decide a little recon is in order. After leaving the small copse of trees near the rapids, you start out in general direction of Spinnan Lake trying to determine how rugged this bushwhack will be.

You return for your canoe and begin the bushwhack with all your gear out to Spinnan Lake. As you get closer to the lake, you find the going gets a lot easier since you are no longer dealing with the burned logs and exposed boulders hidden in the undergrowth. This is because you have entered a more boggy area which never contained heavy forest cover.

This is a good view of the boggy area you must cross after you leave the burnt forest section of the bushwhack on your way to Spinnan Lake. The footing through here is much easier and you are able to see a long ways for direction finding purposes.

Now that you've made it over the portage, visit: LAKE THREE

Portage from Lake Three into: Bushwhack into Spinnan Lake

RETURN TO THE LIST OF BWCA CANOE PORTAGES