I have an early June solo trip coming up. My plan is to base on Lynx. I’m getting a ride to entry from VNO and need to set a pickup time. I’m 60 and in good shape. I will be double portaging. Thanks

Couple times in at LIS.....but never directly to Lynx. Twice, we ate lunch at Devils Cascade on our way to Loon....so Im guessing 4-5 hours to there. Also came out from Hustler through Lynx to LIS ep and we were back in town for a late lunch. I can check my journals for times but I'm gonna so 5 hours for you....6 to be safe?

It usually takes me (double portaging) about 3 1/2 hours to Shell. Maybe an additional hour to Lynx.

egknuti: "It usually takes me (double portaging) about 3 1/2 hours to Shell. Maybe an additional hour to Lynx."

3 hrs and 40 for us to Shell's western shore in 2013, including loading and unloading at the major-sized beaver pond along the Pauness-Shell portage. Is that still a thing?

rechecked my journals. My times were slightly inflated. Little less than 3 to Devils Cascade and looks like we came out from Hustler in 5 hours. Lynx should be about 4.5 I would say and looks to be for others.

schweady: "

egknuti: "It usually takes me (double portaging) about 3 1/2 hours to Shell. Maybe an additional hour to Lynx."

3 hrs and 40 for us to Shell's western shore in 2013, including loading and unloading at the major-sized beaver pond along the Pauness-Shell portage. Is that still a thing?
"

The beaver dam blew out a few years ago and I was able to walk the entire portage, but last year it was back!

Thanks everyone!

Last July, traveling solo, 5.5 hrs

I think we managed it in 5-6 hours, but that was with an hour long lunch break on Shell. That beaver dam on the shell portage had a 50ft long, knee deep puddle.

Thanks again everyone. I’m thinking I might move to one of the Pauness lakes the day before exit. I have to be at MSP by 6 pm and I don’t want to rush on my way out.

egknuti: "

schweady: "

egknuti: "It usually takes me (double portaging) about 3 1/2 hours to Shell. Maybe an additional hour to Lynx."

3 hrs and 40 for us to Shell's western shore in 2013, including loading and unloading at the major-sized beaver pond along the Pauness-Shell portage. Is that still a thing?
"

The beaver dam blew out a few years ago and I was able to walk the entire portage, but last year it was back!
"

That's amazing. When we went through there in 2018, it was at least shoulder deep before I turned around and decided we better load up the canoe, and paddle across.

2 of us in our mid 60's exited from Lynx to LIS north last year. Took about 5.5 hours with a stop for lunch. And if you are going to Lynx you I recommend going to Heritage as well.

we were able to wade through it last year about hip deep as worst.

Last year coming out I planned to stay on Upper Pauness. I was able to get one of the last sites. A not very good one. No trees for shade or to hang a tarp.


There was a resident grouse who hung around. I forgot to zip up my tent when I went out for a paddle and the grouse was in my tent!

A pair of snapping turtles were also getting busy in the shallows.

FYI - A fair number of people use upper and lower Pauness as their destination lake.

moray: "Thanks again everyone. I’m thinking I might move to one of the Pauness lakes the day before exit. I have to be at MSP by 6 pm and I don’t want to rush on my way out."

I would go with this plan, personally.

Then again, I’m really slow. But the portage with the beaver dam (with or without water) slows me down.

I snapped a bending branches paddle in half trying to get across that puddle. It was too deep to walk and to shallow to paddle thru. Needed a hack craft bush fix with gorilla tape to put the paddle back together and keep going. That was kind of a hassle, for whatever reason this was not one of my fav ways to get into the BW. It was kind of boring, we camped on Shell and it was a lot of traffic too.

Anyhoo, have fun, Lynx is a step beyond and might offer more solitude. We checked it out, seemed quiet over there.

We've done this route several times, either stopping on Lynx or passing through to Hustler. For us it has always been 4-4.5 hours back to the E.P. 14 parking lot from Lynx. There's three pretty solid campsites on Lynx and a couple of average sites. Heritage is a gem that gets very little traffic and the site on the north end by the mouth of the creek was pretty nice.

ultralight: "We've done this route several times, either stopping on Lynx or passing through to Hustler. For us it has always been 4-4.5 hours back to the E.P. 14 parking lot from Lynx. There's three pretty solid campsites on Lynx and a couple of average sites. Heritage is a gem that gets very little traffic and the site on the north end by the mouth of the creek was pretty nice."

4 hours? You must be single carrying. OP specifically said double carrying. I made it out from the far side of Shell, double carrying, not dilly dallying, in about 4.5 hours. A campsite on Lynx would've been another 30-45 mins from the far eastern site on Shell. Granted, it was drizzling most of the time so we watched our footing carefully, and had to unload/paddle/load for the flooded section of the Shell portage which added about 15 minutes for our two-canoe crew.

We just came out of that area, but we single portage so I can’t help you with your timing. But keep in mind you’ll be paddling against current on your way out vs with it on the way in. Nothing crazy of course, but you may be slightly slower on your way out. On that Shell/Pauness portage, if you walk around the beaver pond/puddle on the north side you can stay on top of a small dam and don’t have to deal with the slop. Have a good trip!