An option for people who want to enter the BWCA or Quetico from the west end is to take a motorboat tow to Lac La Croix. The motor tow is an adventure in itself. During the trip to La Croix from Crane Lake, the motorboat is twice loaded onto a cart and pulled across portages on railroad tracks.
Zup’s Resort gave us a motor tow today, as we started a seven day canoe adventure. This photo shows Zup’s boat on the cart at Beatty Portage between Loon Lake and Lac La Croix. The motor tow shaves a day or two of paddling if you are accessing Crooked Lake or the Quetico Park lakes in that vicinity.