Jug Lake
Jug Lake is a shallow body of water connected to Boulder Lake via a small creek that runs through a peat bog. An old Minnesota DNR fishing survey indicates that Jug Lake has northern pike and that they are fairly good sized. The lake is probably named for its shape. The water in this jug though will be of the chunky variety as the lake has a fair amount of vegetation on its surface
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 Jug Lake
A peat bog with a small creek running through it can be found in the southeast corner of Boulder Lake. You should be able to see Jug Lake from Boulder Lake. There is another unnamed lake (referred to as Little Jug Lake on this website) just south of Jug Lake that is accessed through a different creek from the bay just west of the bay containing the creek leading into Jug Lake. So, make sure you are taking the right creek to the right lake. Note that a small creek does flow from the unnamed lake into Jug Lake too; the unnamed lake has two outlets to two different lakes.
Bushwhack to Jug Lake
It is a 15 rod paddle/bushwhack from Boulder Lake into Jug Lake passing through the peat bog that separates them. This creek appears to be mostly navigable to intrepid paddlers.
Exploring Jug Lake
The lake contains northern pike of descent size according to a fairly old fish survey. The lake has a lot of swampy shoreline, but also has rocks, points and fallen timber along its shore that could offer some good fishing structure. It is only a 20 rod bushwhack from the southwest end of Jug Lake into the sizeable and fairly deep (about 25 feet) unnamed lake just to the southwest. This unnamed lake can also be reached directly from Boulder Lake by following a creek from the bay just to the west of the bay where the creek into Jug Lake was found. The creek leading into the unnamed lake from Boulder is not floatable and will require a bushwhack. Therefore, if you wish to visit the unnamed lake, getting into it from Jug Lake is probably the easiest route.
A survey benchmark highlighted with yellow paint (likely washed away by now) on a ledge rock, about 25 feet from the water's edge, can be found on the north side of the west end of the lake near to the small creek flowing back to Boulder Lake. This benchmark was placed by the Minnesota Department of Conservation (now known as the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources) on or about July 27, 1964.
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