Pageant LakeMaking Connections
MapsLinks
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Full image approximately 2 miles square |
Description
Pageant is a small, remote lake at the head of Pageant Creek in the Loon River drainage, 12¾ miles east of Crane Lake and 31 miles NNW of Ely. Over ¾ mile long, its east end narrows to form Pageant Creek, a tributary of Heritage Creek which flows into Loon Lake in East Loon Bay. Pageant has no maintained portage access.The forests which ring Pageant Lake have largely grown up after the fires of 1894, excepting the area to the northeast, which dates back to the earlier 1868 fire season. This region of the BWCA escaped damage in the 4th of July windstorms of 1999, which caused such extensive tree loss to the south and east.
Campsites
Pageant Lake supports one established campsite, along the southern shore near the west end, intended primarily for backpackers on the Sioux Hustler Hiking Trail, which parallels the lake's southern shore.Planning Considerations
Pageant Lake is in the Weeny Lake Primitive Management Area, and over a mile south of the Snow Bay/Pocket Creek route, (which drops south and east out of Snow Bay on Lac La Croix through a string of lakes (North/South, Steep, Eugene, Little Beartrack, Beartrack, and Thumb) before turning northeast at Finger to Pocket, returning to Lac La Croix at the mouth of Pocket Creek). It is much farther from other established canoe routes. All connections to nearby lakes and streams are without benefit of established portage. Bushwhacking connections can be made out of the east end of Pageant, with Brigand (100 rods to the north), Lucky Finn (about 220 rods to the east), and Lower Rangeline (some 45 rods south of Pageant Creek a little over a quarter mile below the lake). Actual distance on the ground is dependent upon route chosen, of course. To the west of Pageant is trackless wilderness of forest and bog, all the way to Loon Lake.Wildlife
Pageant is certainly remote enough for good wildlife viewing and large enough for good fishing potential but neither is known with any certainty.Notes and Comments
Pageant is one of a small cluster of lakes (with Brigand, Contentment, Lucky Finn, and Nahimana) in the north end of the Weeny Lake PMA, and the most remote of the group. Pageant, and the surrounding PMA, is not for the faint of heart. It is remote, tough going, but then this is, after all, wilderness. (And what we are in search of when we come to the BWCA).
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