Wood Lake

Wood Lake covers about 617 acres in the Kawishiwi district of the Boundary Waters, in Lake County northeast of Ely. It's one of the more directly reached interior lakes in the area: Entry Point 26 carries its name, and a single portage off Fernberg Road puts a canoe on the water, though at 232 rods and rated difficult, it's a longer first carry than the drive-up start suggests. A shorter, 57-rod portage on the opposite shore connects to Hula Lake and the water beyond it.

The lake runs shallow from one end to the other, topping out at 21 feet, and the bottom stays shallow enough to hold aquatic plants across nearly all of it. The shoreline is rocky right at the waterline, then softens into silt and muck a short distance out.

Walleye and northern pike are what anglers come for, both working the weed edges and rock that make up most of the basin, and pike here have measured past two feet. Yellow perch fill in behind them, and a scattering of smallmouth bass hold on whatever harder bottom the lake offers.

Four campsites are spread around Wood Lake's shore, few enough that finding an empty one isn't hard even this close to an entry point.

Wood Lake suits a paddler who wants wilderness camping without a long string of portages to reach it, on water shallow and weedy enough that a spinner rod matters as much as the map.