Lake of The Woods & Rainy Lake

We were on a boat in the Apostles in early July. Minor problem, that year, as long as there was a breeze. This can make anchoring a bit more of a problem - you want a cove with enough breeze to keep down the bugs, but not so much that you toss on the anchor while trying to sleep. We were also there in September, and no problem then.

Bug problems are different with the year as well as the season, since weather is variable. Tempts. and rainfall are major factors.

Carry netting and no worries (or at least, fewer).
 
I live on a Island on Rainy Lake from May to November and will be purchasing a C-Dory or Marinaut 215 this summer when I retire. There is a mechanical portage around Kettle Falls which is located on the extreme east end of Rainy Lake. For a fee they will portage your boat around the Kettle Falls dam into Namakin Lake from which you can cruise into Lake Kabetogma and eastward into Namakin Lake. If you launched at the VNP vistors center on Rainy Lake you have a huge crusing area east ward and north into Canada. This trip is going to be our first extended cruise when we purchase the boat. The national park does not recognize C-dorys as a houseboat so you can not use the houseboat sites to overnight in when in the park. I have read VNP definition on houseboats and C-Dorys do not fall within the scope of it. Pretty weird, the houseboats have a tight lock on prime beach spots for overnighting. There are other options and spots for overnighting and anchoring is allowed anywhere.
 
We have made the run from Rainy, across into Namakan, and down through Sandpoint to Crane Lake a number of times, albeit not in a C-Dory. It's a nice trip, but we have found those lakes to be more crowded than Rainy.

As far as beaches and Rainy go, we seldom land at them as even the finest-grained of them can harbor rocks. And houseboat tie-ups can be among the worst as the houseboats have steel pontoons and are unaffected. I would never overnight beached for fear of being ground to smithereens were a blow to come up. But there are some good docking sites to tie up to such as Kawawia Island, Anderson Bay, and Kettle Falls itself which has quite a system. But as has been stated, numerous anchorages abound and that is what we prefer, just swinging in the breeze.

Al
 
We are thinking of heading to LOW and Rainy this summer with Halcyon
 - either before or after canoeing in the Boundary Waters with all our family in late July.

Am doing trip planning now, and have been reading through the info on this thread with interest.

Warren - are you still planning to head north?
 
Not Warren - but we're still planning.

I'm wondering about LOW up in the Kenora area. We were up there about 10 years ago. The whole area up there looks like a good place to get lost and stay that way all summer.

Our only problem is that we HAVE to get out of this area before it gets to hot, so we'll probably be up there early, helping the bugs hatch out.
 
Talking to myself here. A response I just received from the NPS Ranger up there.

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"I just talked to the owner and they told me that they could handle a 25ft boat. The mechanical portage is a truck and a big flat bed trailer. I have used it several times to haul my 23ft, twin screw patrol boat across and it handled it just fine. if you have any other questions let me know."
- - - - - - -
 
The mechanical portage is quite interesting. It consists of a trailer with two pair of stanchions slung with conveyor belting, forming two cradles. It's a one size fits all affair. One simply drives up onto it and the truck pulls you out and away you go, no other tie-downs or anything. In portaging from the Rainy side to the Namakan side one ascends a short, steep hill and the first time over one is convinced the boat will slide off onto the road. I guess it has actually happened a few times, but it's pretty safe. LOL
Al
 
I worked at Kettle Falls during the summer of 1968 and operated the portage for Charlie Williams the owner of Kettle Falls at the time. As the Moose indicated the trailer has not changed much only newer and some people wanted their boats tied off from the bow which we did. Never had one fall off tied or not.
 
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