The 13-mile stretch of river and lakes between Gunflint and Saganaga Lakes is known as the Granite River route and is one of the most unique in the area. Along with the Frost River route this is the only other river base canoe route on the Gunflint Trail. It’s waters flow north out of Gunflint Lake and the first part is the most intense with multiple portages around raging waterfalls and rapids.
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Episode Transcript
[0:00:01 – 0:00:02] Bob: Good day.
[0:00:02 – 0:00:08] Bob: This episode of Tumble Home Express, we are featuring the Granite River.
[0:00:08 – 0:00:10] Bob: Eric, the Granite River.
[0:00:10 – 0:00:11] Bob: Look at this map.
[0:00:11 – 0:00:13] Bob: It’s an E4 fissure we’re looking at.
[0:00:13 – 0:00:14] Erik: Yeah.
[0:00:14 – 0:00:15] Bob: This is a nice map.
[0:00:16 – 0:00:20] Erik: We’ll get into some of the downsides of the map aspects of this route.
[0:00:22 – 0:00:25] Erik: Don’t take away from this route at all, but something to consider.
[0:00:26 – 0:00:38] Erik: We are talking about the Granite River, which begins at Magnetic Lake, north of Gunflint Lake, up on the Gunflint Trail.
[0:00:38 – 0:00:40] Erik: And if you were doing this in the direct direction,
[0:00:41 – 0:00:45] Erik: The direction of water flow, this is where you should be putting in.
[0:00:45 – 0:00:55] Erik: Most people are taking out at the end of the Gunflint Trail via Saginaw Lake, Seagull Creek, Trails End Campground.
[0:00:56 – 0:00:57] Bob: Perfecto.
[0:00:57 – 0:00:58] Erik: Perfecto.
[0:00:58 – 0:01:03] Bob: The Granite River is the longest northern flowing river in North America.
[0:01:03 – 0:01:05] Erik: Yes, fact check us on that.
[0:01:05 – 0:01:06] Bob: That’s a rock fact.
[0:01:06 – 0:01:06] Erik: Yeah.
[0:01:06 – 0:01:08] Erik: So yes, you keep that in mind.
[0:01:08 – 0:01:10] Erik: It does flow from south to north.
[0:01:10 – 0:01:23] Erik: I know the first time I was planning a trip in my younger days and looking at this, it took me a while to figure that out and a lot of convincing from somebody who’s like, yeah, no, it definitely flows from south to north.
[0:01:24 – 0:01:26] Erik: Uh, you can paddle it from north to south.
[0:01:26 – 0:01:28] Erik: It’s just not as much fun.
[0:01:29 – 0:01:34] Erik: Um, you know, depending on the time of year, you can avoid some of the portages if you are a better paddler.
[0:01:35 – 0:01:47] Erik: Um, but we describe this route as, uh, I would say a moderate route to easy depending on, you know, obviously with any route, how much time do you have?
[0:01:48 – 0:01:52] Erik: You can make this a difficult route if you want to try to get it done in one night, but
[0:01:53 – 0:01:54] Bob: Or an afternoon.
[0:01:54 – 0:01:55] Erik: Or a day, yeah.
[0:01:55 – 0:01:57] Erik: That which, again, you can maybe do.
[0:01:57 – 0:01:58] Bob: You can do it.
[0:01:59 – 0:02:03] Bob: You can leave at 1 and still make it to the lot by dark if you’re in the middle of summer.
[0:02:04 – 0:02:05] Bob: Somebody told me that.
[0:02:05 – 0:02:08] Erik: Yeah, we heard that just through the grapevine, I think.
[0:02:09 – 0:02:10] Erik: Through the alder brush.
[0:02:10 – 0:02:12] Bob: Got waylaid by a storm on Sag, too.
[0:02:13 – 0:02:14] Bob: It would have been there earlier.
[0:02:15 – 0:02:20] Erik: So yeah, you’re putting in at the Gunflint Lake public access and heading north.
[0:02:20 – 0:02:23] Erik: It’s roughly a three to five day trip.
[0:02:24 – 0:02:29] Erik: I would say probably closer to two to four now that I’ve done it a few times since writing up this route.
[0:02:29 – 0:02:30] Bob: Three would be nice to do.
[0:02:31 – 0:02:32] Bob: I think I’ve never done it in three.
[0:02:32 – 0:02:35] Bob: That would be a very luxurious river trip.
[0:02:35 – 0:02:36] Erik: Three would be nice.
[0:02:36 – 0:02:37] Bob: A lot of good fishing in there too.
[0:02:37 – 0:02:39] Bob: It’d be nice to take it easy and fish more.
[0:02:39 – 0:02:43] Erik: Stop at some of the downside portage, you know, under the falls.
[0:02:43 – 0:02:44] Bob: Oh, yes.
[0:02:44 – 0:02:48] Erik: Yeah, I would say it’s roughly about 20 miles, 20 plus for sure.
[0:02:49 – 0:02:50] Erik: Major lakes along the way.
[0:02:50 – 0:02:55] Erik: You’ve got Gunflint, Magnetic, Nice, Marabouf.
[0:02:56 – 0:03:01] Erik: And, uh, Saginaw, just one to keep in mind, uh, because of its size.
[0:03:02 – 0:03:10] Erik: Um, but yeah, you’re working with entry point 57 in our estimation, the preferred entry point.
[0:03:11 – 0:03:12] Erik: Uh, there are three of those per day.
[0:03:13 – 0:03:16] Erik: Uh, based on my experience, I do notice that there are almost always
[0:03:18 – 0:03:46] Erik: magnetic lake entry permits available um you know over the course of the summer you get people calling looking for those last second permits um you know i don’t know necessarily why it is as available as it is but you know maybe it has to do with um the burn it’s a little burned over the years a few times it’s a little burned it’s a bit burned bit burnt it’s a it’s a wee bit burnt yeah um
[0:03:47 – 0:03:55] Erik: Yeah, I think the major highlights on this route, it’s one of the few rivers in the area that you get a real sense that you’re like moving.
[0:03:55 – 0:03:56] Bob: Moving water.
[0:03:56 – 0:03:57] Bob: Yeah.
[0:03:57 – 0:03:58] Bob: Ride the current, baby.
[0:03:59 – 0:04:00] Bob: And even though, yeah, you’re not like.
[0:04:00 – 0:04:01] Bob: I love a river trip.
[0:04:01 – 0:04:05] Erik: You don’t necessarily, I don’t think you really need any like river experience.
[0:04:06 – 0:04:08] Erik: There might be one spot that it kind of helps.
[0:04:09 – 0:04:10] Bob: There’s nothing dangerous.
[0:04:10 – 0:04:13] Erik: No, it’s not like Kevin Bacon in the River Wild.
[0:04:13 – 0:04:14] Bob: It’s a little like that.
[0:04:14 – 0:04:15] Bob: I mean, let’s be honest.
[0:04:15 – 0:04:16] Erik: Yeah.
[0:04:16 – 0:04:20] Erik: At some point, somebody will end up on shore and then stalk you through the woods for days on end.
[0:04:22 – 0:04:24] Erik: No, it’s, yeah, it has the overall.
[0:04:24 – 0:04:26] Bob: I gotta rewatch the River Wild now.
[0:04:26 – 0:04:26] Erik: You really should.
[0:04:27 – 0:04:34] Erik: Overall sense of moving water and river travel without like, you know, you’re not going to be like going down class four rapids.
[0:04:34 – 0:04:42] Erik: There are some major waterfalls, major rapids, and moving water, but there are always portages around those spots.
[0:04:43 – 0:04:50] Erik: And I would say the biggest aspect about the route, especially on the Gunflint side of the Bajoars, is it’s very unique.
[0:04:50 – 0:04:55] Erik: There’s really nothing else that compares to it on the Gunflint side.
[0:04:55 – 0:04:58] Erik: There are rivers on the Gunflint side, but they’re
[0:05:00 – 0:05:05] Erik: You know, we’ve talked about the Frost River, the Laos River, some of those smaller ones.
[0:05:05 – 0:05:07] Erik: And they’ve got that, they’ve got a river feel.
[0:05:08 – 0:05:12] Erik: But this is, this is like borderline Quetico, like falls chain feeling.
[0:05:13 – 0:05:13] Erik: Big moving water.
[0:05:14 – 0:05:14] Bob: Yeah.
[0:05:15 – 0:05:15] Bob: Yeah.
[0:05:15 – 0:05:19] Bob: I mean, Sag Falls or what’s the falls at the top?
[0:05:19 – 0:05:20] Erik: The very end.
[0:05:20 – 0:05:20] Erik: Yeah.
[0:05:20 – 0:05:21] Erik: Sag Falls.
[0:05:21 – 0:05:21] Bob: Sag Falls.
[0:05:21 – 0:05:22] Bob: It’s a big set of falls.
[0:05:23 – 0:05:25] Bob: It’s an incredible spot to hang out.
[0:05:26 – 0:05:26] Bob: Take it in.
[0:05:29 – 0:05:30] Bob: Yeah, it’s one of my favorite routes up here.
[0:05:31 – 0:05:35] Bob: I love a good river route and a lot of cool campsites along the way.
[0:05:35 – 0:05:37] Bob: A lot of good fishing to be had.
[0:05:38 – 0:05:38] Erik: For sure.
[0:05:38 – 0:05:41] Erik: Definitely good fishing, especially in the spring.
[0:05:42 – 0:05:49] Erik: Though you should keep in mind there are a few spots that do become closed for walleye spawning.
[0:05:49 – 0:05:55] Erik: One of those is the waterway immediately adjacent and below Saginaw Falls.
[0:05:55 – 0:05:57] Erik: Truly, they will have buoys out.
[0:05:58 – 0:05:59] Bob: Watch for the buoy.
[0:05:59 – 0:06:01] Erik: Yeah.
[0:06:02 – 0:06:10] Erik: But yeah, it’s, I mean, I think, yeah, I don’t know if it is the burn or why it doesn’t get as much travel.
[0:06:11 – 0:06:13] Erik: It might be because there aren’t as many options.
[0:06:13 – 0:06:15] Erik: It is a true A to B route.
[0:06:15 – 0:06:16] Erik: You know, it doesn’t have that.
[0:06:17 – 0:06:22] Erik: option to be like, oh man, bad weather or like buddy, you know, busted a thumb.
[0:06:22 – 0:06:23] Erik: We got to turn back.
[0:06:23 – 0:06:31] Erik: I mean, you can always turn back, but it’s like once you kind of start getting down into it, it’s almost just easier to finish it up.
[0:06:31 – 0:06:32] Erik: Press onward.
[0:06:33 – 0:06:40] Erik: Yeah, it’s not like some other routes that we’ll talk about later that have an almost infinite number of offshoots to change it.
[0:06:41 – 0:06:53] Erik: It’s the Granite River, and that’s what you’re going to be paddling with maybe an offshoot on the Larch or some time spent on Marabou for whatever that could maybe change it up a little bit.
[0:06:54 – 0:06:58] Bob: There’s only one thing that I don’t like about this route, Eric.
[0:06:58 – 0:06:58] Erik: Okay.
[0:07:00 – 0:07:01] Bob: You scrolled appropriately.
[0:07:01 – 0:07:02] Bob: Thank you.
[0:07:02 – 0:07:05] Bob: I don’t like the paddle on sag at the end.
[0:07:06 – 0:07:08] Bob: I never like it.
[0:07:08 – 0:07:18] Bob: I got almost hit by a lightning storm on there the first time I did this, and I’ve run into some rough seas on that lake, and then on top of that, you got the motorboat factor.
[0:07:18 – 0:07:30] Erik: Yeah, it is a perfect storm of coming around that corner to cabins on the Canadian side, wind, and then right in the corridor with like, yeah, you’re out there with big yug yugs.
[0:07:32 – 0:07:33] Erik: Yeah, you got your 25 horsepower.
[0:07:33 – 0:07:36] Bob: And then it just seems like, oh my God, it should be over.
[0:07:36 – 0:07:37] Bob: We got to be almost there.
[0:07:37 – 0:07:40] Bob: And then you’re like, wait, no, we have a long way to go.
[0:07:40 – 0:07:43] Bob: It seems to take forever, even if you’re paddling fast.
[0:07:43 – 0:07:44] Erik: Oh, for sure.
[0:07:44 – 0:08:03] Erik: I mean, you just look at the map and side-by-side comparison of like, all right, if you start your day on Marabou, you know, over at the Devil’s Elbow, per se, and you’re paddling all the way north to get up to Sag, and then you kind of turn the corner, you’ve got a almost longer paddle.
[0:08:03 – 0:08:03] Erik: Yeah.
[0:08:03 – 0:08:29] Bob: to get south than you’ve paddled north all day so that is a little bit of a you know maybe even break it up so that you get up onto sag and find a campsite that’s what i would recommend and that’s now how it like if i were to do it again that’s what i would try and do yeah it does get to be a little bit of a slog there are some really cool campsites up in that neck of the woods too there are i got a few um um i don’t know go listen to our sag episode i guess
[0:08:29 – 0:08:34] Erik: It’s not out yet, but if it is the year 2021, maybe it is.
[0:08:35 – 0:08:36] Erik: Or maybe later in 2020.
[0:08:36 – 0:08:40] Erik: I think it’d be fun to try to get that one out before this next upcoming summer.
[0:08:40 – 0:08:42] Bob: There’s the blog post on it.
[0:08:42 – 0:08:42] Bob: There is.
[0:08:43 – 0:08:44] Bob: You can go read that, I guess.
[0:08:44 – 0:08:51] Erik: I’ll attach a link to the 50 plus campsites that we reviewed on SAG over the course of three weekends.
[0:08:52 – 0:08:53] Bob: That’s how I would do it.
[0:08:53 – 0:09:00] Bob: I would stop, like, night one on Clove, and then, like, night two up in, you know, Marabouf?
[0:09:01 – 0:09:01] Erik: Yeah.
[0:09:01 – 0:09:02] Bob: What am I looking at?
[0:09:03 – 0:09:07] Bob: And then night three, just, like, somewhere on the north side when you get to Sag.
[0:09:08 – 0:09:33] Bob: then you can take your time and do some fishing and then just set yourself up nice for a final paddle out because i i think just paddling sag it’s a beautiful lake but it’s something about like yeah having to end a day paddling it then if you’re just gonna like paddle it that’s what you’re doing that day you know you could also like turn it into a longer trip especially if your like focus is fishing fish your way down the river and then like spend a day or two out on sag fishing too like
[0:09:34 – 0:09:34] Erik: Yeah.
[0:09:34 – 0:09:35] Erik: My, my first.
[0:09:35 – 0:09:44] Bob: This would be like one of, if people were like, I really want to fish a lot, like, and they’re coming up, I would immediately point to this one just because the fishing is superb throughout.
[0:09:45 – 0:09:48] Bob: Um, you get a little bit of everything then you get some, you get some river, you get some lake.
[0:09:50 – 0:09:52] Bob: Um, that would be the way to do it in my opinion.
[0:09:52 – 0:09:55] Bob: And in June, go on June 20th.
[0:09:56 – 0:10:02] Erik: The second trip I ever took, we did it Clove, Marabouf, Sag, Sag.
[0:10:03 – 0:10:04] Erik: Two nights on Sag.
[0:10:04 – 0:10:04] Bob: Yes.
[0:10:04 – 0:10:05] Bob: Truly leisure.
[0:10:06 – 0:10:07] Erik: True leisure.
[0:10:07 – 0:10:07] Bob: Mm-hmm.
[0:10:08 – 0:10:10] Erik: I mean, that’s the way I think most people take trips.
[0:10:10 – 0:10:14] Erik: And we broke it up into, you know, all right, we got to get up and move, but we don’t got to go far.
[0:10:14 – 0:10:16] Erik: We can fish along the way.
[0:10:16 – 0:10:17] Erik: Yeah.
[0:10:17 – 0:10:22] Erik: And yeah, all of those portages are basically around falls, which are excellent spots to stop.
[0:10:22 – 0:10:22] Erik: Yeah.
[0:10:23 – 0:10:26] Erik: Uh, if the portage is clear of traffic, you can fish from the portage.
[0:10:27 – 0:10:29] Erik: Usually it’s best to just get in the canoe and kind of float below it.
[0:10:30 – 0:10:36] Erik: But yeah, that’s the, it’s something exciting about being, um, you know, amongst all that moving water.
[0:10:36 – 0:10:39] Erik: It just always feels like there’s something so much more potential.
[0:10:40 – 0:10:42] Bob: Yeah, we should do this again.
[0:10:42 – 0:10:45] Bob: Like it’s been a long time since we’ve done this route.
[0:10:45 – 0:10:46] Erik: It’s been a few years.
[0:10:46 – 0:10:50] Bob: But we were just in Clove and Larch this last year.
[0:10:51 – 0:10:57] Bob: So it’s still like the area is fresh in my mind, but also just talking about it again, it’s getting me excited for like a fishing trip.
[0:10:57 – 0:11:00] Bob: We should make that happen.
[0:11:00 – 0:11:01] Erik: Yeah.
[0:11:02 – 0:11:06] Erik: Anything else to say before you get to your connoisseur’s quick tip on this route?
[0:11:06 – 0:11:07] Erik: No, I’m ready.
[0:11:07 – 0:11:09] Erik: Okay, go ahead, unless you want me to start.
[0:11:09 – 0:11:10] Erik: No, you should go first.
[0:11:10 – 0:11:11] Bob: I want to see what you’re going to say.
[0:11:12 – 0:11:12] Erik: All right.
[0:11:12 – 0:11:24] Erik: I think my quick tip, obviously, before we get to that, you will have to arrange some kind of a pickup time or a phone call.
[0:11:24 – 0:11:27] Erik: Depending on whatever direction you’re going, this isn’t a loop trip.
[0:11:27 – 0:11:29] Erik: That should be common sense at this point.
[0:11:29 – 0:11:36] Erik: There are phones at Trails End, probably one of the few places in the lower 48 that still has a payphone.
[0:11:36 – 0:11:39] Erik: So that exists if you do need to make that phone call.
[0:11:40 – 0:11:50] Erik: But along the route and just generally speaking, I think my connoisseur’s tip would be, for one, the campsite on Nice.
[0:11:50 – 0:11:55] Erik: The island campsite specifically is a very nice spot.
[0:11:56 – 0:11:58] Erik: And then the fishing spot.
[0:11:59 – 0:12:05] Erik: in the narrows between Clove and Nice, throughout that whole section.
[0:12:05 – 0:12:08] Erik: I’m not going to give away any specifics.
[0:12:08 – 0:12:10] Bob: The whole thing’s a good spot.
[0:12:10 – 0:12:15] Erik: That whole stretch is money, especially in the spring.
[0:12:15 – 0:12:16] Bob: That’s very cash money.
[0:12:17 – 0:12:24] Erik: Yeah, so those two spots would be my connoisseur’s tips.
[0:12:24 – 0:12:35] Erik: If you’ve got somebody who you can convince to drive up to the end of the Gunflint Trail and ride a bicycle back down and meet you at Gunflint, that is also another way to get yourself transported.
[0:12:37 – 0:12:37] Erik: It’s too windy.
[0:12:38 – 0:12:39] Bob: It’s too windy for me.
[0:12:39 – 0:12:39] Bob: I get bike sick.
[0:12:40 – 0:12:44] Erik: Yeah, I don’t recommend bicycling on the Gunflint Trail, but I have had a friend who was willing to do that one time.
[0:12:44 – 0:12:47] Bob: You can usually hitchhike down that section of trail pretty easy too.
[0:12:47 – 0:12:48] Bob: Could also do that.
[0:12:48 – 0:12:49] Bob: That’s not my connoisseur’s tip though.
[0:12:50 – 0:12:55] Bob: My connoisseur’s tip is there’s the shortcut portage on the Devil’s Elbow going through Canada.
[0:12:56 – 0:12:56] Bob: Are you aware of this one?
[0:12:57 – 0:12:57] Bob: Have you ever taken it?
[0:12:58 – 0:13:00] Erik: I have not, but I was aware that it existed.
[0:13:00 – 0:13:00] Erik: I’ve never taken it.
[0:13:00 – 0:13:07] Bob: Yeah, you might think like, hey, I’m going to be a naughty paddler and we’re just going to take that shortcut.
[0:13:09 – 0:13:10] Erik: It’s not worth it.
[0:13:10 – 0:13:11] Bob: Yeah.
[0:13:11 – 0:13:13] Bob: I mean, if you have your RABC, go ahead.
[0:13:14 – 0:13:16] Bob: Even if you don’t, I don’t think anybody really cares.
[0:13:17 – 0:13:20] Bob: It’s listed on some maps, but it’s not a very nice portage.
[0:13:20 – 0:13:23] Bob: It’s not maintained very well.
[0:13:23 – 0:13:24] Bob: So just go around.
[0:13:24 – 0:13:26] Bob: A lot of good fishing in there, too.
[0:13:26 – 0:13:28] Bob: So that’s my connoisseur’s tip.
[0:13:28 – 0:13:29] Bob: Don’t be tempted to be naughty.
[0:13:29 – 0:13:32] Erik: Don’t be tempted to be naughty.
[0:13:32 – 0:13:41] Erik: Yeah, we should finish with one other aspect, which we started with, was the one challenge with this route is figuring out what maps to use.
[0:13:41 – 0:13:41] Erik: Right.
[0:13:42 – 0:13:48] Erik: And we are big proponents of fissures, which is, this is the one area that we don’t recommend using a fissure.
[0:13:48 – 0:13:50] Bob: Yeah, you got to get your McKenzie.
[0:13:50 – 0:13:55] Erik: You really do, because they have one map that is specifically… Do you know the number off the top of your head?
[0:13:55 – 0:13:55] Bob: I don’t.
[0:13:55 – 0:13:57] Bob: I want to say M30, but I know it’s wrong.
[0:13:58 – 0:13:58] Bob: Yeah.
[0:13:58 – 0:14:00] Bob: Anyways, there’s a McKenzie that’s got the whole route.
[0:14:01 – 0:14:01] Erik: Yeah.
[0:14:01 – 0:14:02] Bob: The McKenzie has the whole route.
[0:14:02 – 0:14:04] Bob: Otherwise, your Nat Geo will suffice also.
[0:14:05 – 0:14:07] Erik: I think the Nat Geo definitely suffices.
[0:14:07 – 0:14:11] Erik: You could even get by with zooming in and cutting out a section of a Fisher E4.
[0:14:12 – 0:14:38] Erik: but it’s not that detailed um but the problem with the fishers is you need it comes at like the confluence of like three maps and they’re all like kind of overlaid and it just doesn’t make sense to try to get all three of them out there uh mckenzie if there’s anything that they do well it’s they kind of figure out like all right this is the one spot where fisher doesn’t have it figured out like the pigeon river they got the pigeon river map they’ve got the granite river
[0:14:39 – 0:14:42] Bob: That’s why it’s important to have a flexible map quiver.
[0:14:42 – 0:14:42] Erik: Yeah.
[0:14:43 – 0:14:55] Erik: And I don’t know what the Voyager map situation is anymore, where those come down in the Granite River or where the…
[0:14:56 – 0:15:24] Erik: true north maps i don’t know i mean i’m pretty sure that they can print any map you want so if you really wanted to get a specific granite river you could just contact them and get a special one made but i’m not sure where their current grid falls down so i don’t know yeah it’s not that tricky of a route you know it’s not really that’s the one nice thing is yeah you kind of there’s maybe the maybe the granite granite lake and then heading up marabou sometimes is like a little bit but it
[0:15:24 – 0:15:42] Bob: yeah yeah you want to make sure you know where the portages are going to be but i mean you got a couple options you can set a compass and pretty much figure it out anyways i i’ll go i’ll say i’ll just take the nat geo for this trip but you could definitely get by on the nat geo easily even if you’re going to spend some time on seg especially if you’re going to spend some time on seg yeah
[0:15:43 – 0:15:44] Erik: Need something up at the latrine.
[0:15:44 – 0:15:45] Erik: Highly recommended.
[0:15:45 – 0:15:47] Erik: It’s a unique route.
[0:15:48 – 0:15:53] Erik: Underrated, underutilized permit for whatever reason.
[0:15:54 – 0:15:58] Erik: Don’t overlook it if you’re looking to put together a last second weekend trip.
[0:15:59 – 0:16:01] Erik: The folks up at Gunflint, the folks up at…
[0:16:02 – 0:16:28] Erik: sag and seagull be more than happy to give you up to detail up to date water conditions more than maybe clearwater would but we can help you out too at clearwater just depends on how many folks we’re sending down this route with that we’re going to call it a choo-choo this has been tumble home express the granite river route good evening good night
