BWCA Portage 628 (Clear to North Branch Kawishiwi)

Find the right starting point, as mentioned by the others, and you'll be fine. There are some hills and twists on this trail.

As mentioned by others previously, there are two false portages. Most maps currently indicate that the portage starts north of where it actually does. The start of the portage is near the end of the bay - it will be obvious. The portage itself is mostly level and fairly easy. We made the mistake of starting at the false portage landing. There is a bare rock that looks like the start of a portage, but it is only bare because a large tree fell down and took the soil with it. The path that leads from the false landing shows how many people have made this mistake. I had sent my kids ahead with their packs, but I immediately knew something was wrong since I couldn't even make the first turn with the canoe. The trail kept splitting, too, so I was worried about finding my kids. Eventually they turned back and found me. After that experience, the portage itself was a breeze.

Descriptions of the actual portage are fairly accurate. We found the false landing on the Kawishiwi side mentioned above (there are actually two of them). It is at a large rock going into the water, and currently has a huge felled tree uprooted right beside it. Just around the corner to the right (when facing shore from the water) another landing has a trail that goes back over to the rock/tree situation. The real portage landing is a few hundred feet along the shore, further back into the little creek/bay area to the right. Most maps appear to get this wrong, much to our bad luck. After getting a few more portages under our belt, it made a lot more sense that the false landings were not portages, but boy was that a costly first mistake!

Portage is not bad. It's fairly rocky but manageable. Nice boardwalks in muddy areas. It took about 14 minutes from one end to the other going northwest. We had to make two trips due to the amount of gear and my husband's bad knees.

The location for the start of this portage on the river end is wrong! It actually starts just a little south at the tip of the tiny finger in this bay. There is a false (old???) landing where this & most maps indicate, along with an accompanying trail into the woods that eventually peters out. The actual trail has some elevation & muddy spots along the way but, overall it's a pretty decent path.

Long but simple portage

no big barriers or struggles here. i have run into trees down across the trail but that happens. find this portage at the end of the bay without too much difficulty.