Boundary Waters and "Jeff's World" July 15-22

Hello friends! A friend and I are planning a BWCA trip in July and want to work in some climbing too. We have been looking at the Jeff's world area. Does anyone have experience doing this kind of trip? We are looking for route suggestions, gear suggestions (rope and draws vs trad rack?), and camping suggestions. Beta would be greatly appreciated. Also, if you would like to join, we love meeting new friends! The more the merrier!

Where exactly is the Jeff's World area?

Hi Lauren, I've helped develop in Crane Lake and Jeff's World. 

To clarify, the MP admin for this area used "Jeff's World (MN/CA border)" to describe everything up there, but "Jeff's World (proper)", Secret Lake, and Swamp Wall are three crags that are connected by a trail in Ontario, Canada and you will need a passport and beta on passing through customs to get there. On the US side, there are another handful of areas, some of which you need a boat to access, some of which you can drive and hike to.

Rope and draws will get you further with developed routes. We've mostly focused on sport routes. There are some established trad routes up there, and there is opportunity for more, especially in places like Brown's Bay which is in Voyageurs National Park (no bolting allowed currently). The routes listed here on MP are pretty up to date.

If you are climbing at Jeff's World (proper), Secret Lake, and Swamp Wall, camping at David Lake makes sense. You need to get a permit from Canada, I think they offer up to 21 days. There is an amazing campsite here. If you are climbing on the US side, there are many camping options in and out of Voyageurs, some free, some paid, some by reservation, some first come first served.

If you ask more questions, I'll chime in when I can. I've flagged this discussion for notifications.

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Jace - Jeff's World (proper) is listed on MP under Minnesota/Jeff's World/Jeff's World (proper). A map link to the approximate location is here.

Kris Gorny or I would be happy to rearrange the northern MN any way you see fit Sean.  Sounds like Jeff's World should be moved to Canada?  Or makes more sense to leave it in MN since that's how you access it?  We can take this offline if you want.  

Chris treggE wrote:

Kris Gorny or I would be happy to rearrange the northern MN any way you see fit Sean.  Sounds like Jeff's World should be moved to Canada?  Or makes more sense to leave it in MN since that's how you access it?  We can take this offline if you want.  

No, it should be in MN. We are developing and promoting that area and the majority of users would access these crags from MN. Tyler, one of the other route developers up there, recently reorganized the MP section for all of this (I think). The larger area used to be called Crane Lake. The switch to Jeff's World made talking about it all a little confusing, I think, but I wasn't commenting to suggest changes, just for clarification for an outside user. Thanks, Chris!