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Black Lake-. |
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It's hard to find and harder to get to, but if you make the effort, Black Lake has everything for the outdoor enthusiast. The lake teems with hungry muskies and monster bass, there is an excellent Forest Service campgound, and a four mile hiking trail circumnavigates the lake.
Although the trail is only four miles long, allow at least an hour and a half to two hours to make it all the way around the lake. The trail is quite rugged, with many downed trees to go over, under, around, or through. It's almost all up and down, too.
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When we hiked it, the trail was closed due to a bridge over Fishtrap Creek that was deemed unsafe. This bridge is scheduled to be fixed in November of 2002., so you shouldn't have to worry about that. The trail starts near the entry to the campground and stays near the lake as you head West and then North. There are low, wet spots and small rills to cross, some of which have boards to help you. Gore-tex hiking boots are a must here. At one point you will briefly be close to a dirt road, but there is no development anywhere on the trail, or on the lake, for that matter, except for the campground.
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After about three miles you will reach the bridge. From there on, the trail moves away from the lake to avoid the boggy North end of the lake. The trail ends at the campgound, and is hard to spot unless you know where to look. The entire trail passes through rugged boreal woods, and is rarely level for long. Look for fairy forests of mosses and worts on the edges of the trail. Wildlife is abundant since this trail is little used.
There is a 28" size limit on muskies on Black Lake, so if you would like to keep a musky without feeling guilty, this is the lake to fish. Both my buddy Mike and I have caught small muskies here. Toss a spoon or crankbait towards the shoreline and you may hook up. The size limit on largemouth bass is 18", so a keeper here is going to be worth photographing, and hopefully you'll release it.
The campground is a typical first rate Forest Service campground, with good spacing between sites, no electrical hookups, and SST's (sweet smelling toilets). There's a small beach, a boat launch, and some walk-in campsites well separated from the rest of the campground. Most of the sites are on the lake and have a place to launch a canoe.
Black Lake is located East of the Chippewa Flowage, North of Highway 70. The nearest town in Loretta. The dirt roads leading to the lake may be rough going if it has rained recently or water levels are high.