Sag to Seagull Route Trip Report

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Sag to Seagull route is a short trip that can be broken into an easy multi-day trip or a long day trip. It consists of paddling across two large lakes, through many islands and across three small lakes. There are three easy portages. At higher water levels, you can skip one and maybe two of the portages. The route passes through areas of the BWCA that burned at least once in recent years.

We recently paddled the Sag to Seagull route over four days and three nights. Most of the days consisted of short paddles between campsites and then lazy days in the campsite taking day trips to various parts of the lake. Now that our kid is four years old, we need to keep him occupied and sitting in the boat for longer than a couple of hours makes him a little restless.

Day 1: 9 miles or so (plus 2 mile paddle around Long Island)

The first day we put in at the entry point at Trails End Campground around noon. It was partly cloudy with plenty of blue sky and a slight northwest wind slowing forward progress. We got to the campsite on Long Island at around 3 or 4pm, which left plenty of time to set up our tent and newly purchased NEMO Bugout Shelter, a tarp with bug netting sides. My kid and I explored the campsite area and then as a family we cast a few lures but got nothing.

Before sunset, I solo paddled our Northstar Polaris two miles around the island stopping for sunset at the southwest point on the island. I finished the solo paddle listening to the loons call across a calm lake as the twilight changed to night.

Map reference: Orange line on the map

Day 2: 6.5 miles

We started early and were on the water by 8am and off the water before noon. Our route took us south southwest down Red Rock Bay, to Red Rock Lake and then to Alpine. There were many islands to paddle past and campsites to check out. Surprisingly, for August many were empty. Tall white pines towered over cedar, spruce and fir trees. Aspens and birch filled in between the towering evergreens.

As we neared the portage into Red Rock Lake, we ran into a family just leaving after a week in the Wilderness Area. They recommended staying on the campsite nearest the portage on Alpine, so we made that our goal. At higher water levels, we could have skipped the portage, but it was a quick, short carry.

With the sun getting high in the sky, the temps reached into the high 80s. Once we paddled to the south end of Red Rock Lake, we reached Cavity Lake fire area. The contrast between a mature Boreal forest and the regrowing burned area was stark. Whereas we had been paddling past mature pines towering above the evergreen forest to scrubby aspens and birch growing in dense thickets.

The portage from Red Rock Lake to Alpine was 48 rods long and easy. We settled for the day into a campsite with a short side trip to a sandy beach nearby. Alpine is a leach-filled lake. We each had multiple leaches on us by the end of the outing to the beach.

After the beach outing, I took a nap in the tent and felt ill afterwards. The heat in the tent made me feel exhausted and sick. I went back to bed after dinner and only woke up to shoot the sunset.

Map reference: Blue line on the map

Day 3: 3 miles

I woke up feeling terrible and had breakfast, did morning chores and then went back to sleep. I wasn’t feeling any better by lunch and took another nap. By three I was worried and we decided to pack up and leave.

Once in the canoe, we decided to take what was shown as a shorter portage on the map. It would require a little extra paddling, but we’d do a 30 rod vs. 97 rod portage. During the paddle, I kept dumping water over my head and dipping my hat into the water to cool down. By the portage I was feeling a little better.

At the portage, I waded up to the river connecting the two lakes to see if we could paddle it and the cool water started to cool down my body and I was feeling much better. With low water levels, we decided we couldn’t run the rapids between the lakes and found the poorly maintained portage trail which rose quickly from the lake through rocky steps and a small cliff. I went first and frightened a big animal which left in a hurry breaking sticks and tree branches on its way.

Once over the portage, I felt much better. We jumped in the canoe, ran a riffle and noticed a campsite on the point near the portage was open. We claimed it, set up camp and went for the swim. After swimming for about a half hour, I felt much better being cooled down.

After dinner, we fished for awhile and then I set up sunset pictures and went to bed with my family in our Big Agnes Copper Spur UL3 protected from the swarm of mosquitoes.

Map reference: Purple line on the map

Day 4: 4.5 miles

I awoke early to photograph one of the most amazing sunrises of the summer. The sky turned purple, pink, red, orange and yellow. There was a slight fog drifting across the lake. I posed the Northstar Polaris and photographed it. It is my favorite photo of the year so far.

After breakfast, we broke camp and paddled through the islands paralleling the north shore of the lake. Many islands just big enough for a few mature pines and cedar dotted the lake. Our goal was to paddle past Miles Island and check out the Seagull Palisades to see if we could find pictographs.

We eventually rounded the point past Miles to see the palisades towering over us. Several faded red smudges on the rock were visible, and the three of us choose to believe they were pictographs. We also left the burned area and entered back into the mature forest. It was a relief to be back into the beautiful mature forest.

We were joking around and I wasn’t paying attention to the map and we paddled into a cove and past a campsite into a dead end — it would also be a perfect place to camp. We paddled out and then weaved through islands until we reached the boat ramp. Because I had parked at the top of the parking lot from where we put it, it was a short hike to our car.

Map reference: Yellow line on the map

Sag to Seagull Route Images