Powwow Trail

Dogs Leashed

Features Birding · Commonly Backpacked · Fall Colors · Fishing · Geological Significance · Historical Significance · Lake · River/Creek · Swimming · Views · Wildflowers · Wildlife

## Powwow Trail

The Powwow Trail is one of the Boundary Waters' most remote and historically layered backpacking routes. Located southeast of Ely near Isabella, this rugged lollipop-style trail follows a 3-mile access stem into a roughly 25-mile wilderness loop through lakes, wetlands, old roadbeds, young forest, beaver crossings, and quiet backcountry camps.

The trail's history tells a broader story of the southern Boundary Waters. Portions of the route follow old logging roads from the Forest Center era, when timber operations, rail lines, and logging camps shaped this part of the Superior National Forest. After the creation and expansion of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, those industrial corridors were gradually reclaimed by forest and later linked into a designated hiking trail, creating a rare long-distance foot route inside a landscape now managed as wilderness.

The Powwow Trail also carries the imprint of fire. In 2011, the Pagami Creek Fire burned through nearly the entire route, transforming mature forest into an open, regenerating landscape of jack pine, brush, wetlands, snags, and wide sky. What hikers experience today is not a polished trail, but a living example of disturbance, recovery, and stewardship. Volunteers with the Boundary Waters Advisory Committee, working with the U.S. Forest Service, spent years reopening and maintaining the route by hand after the fire.

This is a challenging wilderness hike best suited for experienced backpackers with strong navigation skills, good maps, and a flexible plan. For prepared hikers, the Powwow offers solitude, ecological renewal, and a powerful look at how wilderness preserves not just scenery, but change over time.