Lakes of the Ottawa National Forest

I love getting out to explore new places. Ever since I began my U.P. journey 19+ years ago, I've been digging into new hills, shorelines, waterfalls, and trails. None has been as prolific as the region's vast numbers of inland lakes. Lake Superior is great and all, but the interior of the U.P. is full of smaller lakes to explore. Many are quite scenic, and more often than not you'll have them all to yourself.

This is particularly true of the Ottawa National Forest, which happens to be one of my favorite places to visit and explore. The ONF claims to have over 500 named lakes and ponds of all shapes and sizes. That opened up an interesting line of questions: Are there really that many?! How long would it take to paddle them all? Has it been done? Is it even possible? If anyone is going to find out, it'd be me.

As of September 7, 2026 I have visited 300 different lakes in the Ottawa National Forest.

I've also paddled on dozens elsewhere in the U.P., but those don't count towards this goal. I'm probably further along than 99.99% of the Forest Service's visitors and still have a long ways to go! To count towards my goal, I either have to paddle on the lake (obviously), swim in it, or snowshoe/ski on it in winter. Driving by and waving doesn't count.

A lot of lakes are completely inaccessible by road, even in the summer. Fortunately, I built a packraft so even those lakes can't escape me for too long. The most difficult lakes will be private ones. Can't really get around that too easily unless I can hike in through Commercial Forest or USFS land, or Misery Paddle Tour my way in via wetlands or rivers. Don't tempt me...

Below is a list of the lakes I've been to so far. Hit me up if you've ever visited some of the rarer ones. I'm always interested to hear how people got on out there! If you need intel on any of these lakes, I'm more than happy to let you know if you're about to make a big mistake and to make waves towards better options elsewhere. Underlined lakes have linked photos on my flickr. Bolded lakes are some of my 'choice' picks.

NATHAN INVINCIBLE

Lakes of the Ottawa National Forest