Bezhik Lake
The south side of Bezhik Lake shows evidence of damage from the Independence Day Windstorm of 1999. The rest of the lake is surrounded by mature forests. The name Bezhik by the way means "One" in the Ojibwe language. Since the Ojibwe spoke many different dialects of the language, there is no official spelling for words translated to English. So Bezhik, Neesh, Niswi and Neewin (one, two, three and four) are often spelled differently depending on who did the translation to English. For a primer on Ojibwe, check out this article.
This area was most recently burned in 1910 by the Sioux River, Bootleg, Big Moose and Cummings Lake complex. In 1894 it may have been impacted as the Chad, Cummings, Lac La Croix, Crooked Lakes complex raged near this area. Also, around 1755 the area was burned during the Big Moose, Oyster, Lac La Croix complex fires.
Approach to Bezhik Lake
Bezhik Lake is approached from Neesh Lake after passing through Niswi Lake. The crux of getting to any of these lakes is negotiating the bushwhack from Neewin Lake to Niswi Lake which is 380 rods long. Note that it was 380 rods when this used to be a portage maintained by the U.S. Forest Service. The portage appears to go through an area that was leveled by the Independence Day blowdown of 1999. Therefore, this may be a very difficult undertaking.
Bushwhack to Bezhik Lake
It appears a creek can be navigated part of the way from Neesh Lake to Bezhik Lake. The remainder of the distance appears to involve a bushwhack through forest and likely peat bog. This is suggested from satellite images.
Exploring Bezhik Lake
There is not a lot of information for Bezhik Lake that I am aware of. An older post I found from 2001 indicates that the U.S. Forest Service had planned to place a campsite here and had even brought in the fire grate and the materials for the biffy. Maybe those materials are still laying there.
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