Parking
Eks Bay landing on Kabetogama Peninsula is reached by boat from a mainland launch; there is no drive-up parking lot at the trailhead.
Overview
About Little Shoepack Lake Trail
Why go
- Reaches an interior lake shore by trail before the separate canoe leg
Heads up
- Boat transport is required to reach the trailhead
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Voyageurs map
Full mapElevation1,155–1,286 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
2 active Voyageurs alerts
- ClosureDryweed Island-area sites closed for bear activitySeventeen campsites, houseboat sites, and a day-use site on Dryweed Island and nearby islands are closed through the end of October 2026 because of continued bear activity and unsafe bear-human…Official details
- CautionNavigation markers and buoys absent on park lakesUse caution while boating on Rainy, Kabetogama, Namakan, and Sand Point Lakes because park hazard markers and secondary navigation aids have been removed, and most primary navigational buoys are also…Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Voyageurs Tour Guide
Your drive to Little Shoepack Lake Trail, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Voyageurs National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
More stories near here in the app
- Ash River’s Lodge and Lake Overlook
- Beaver Pond Overlook
- Voyageurs Forest Overlook After Dark
- Ash River Campground and Landing
- 29 audio storiesacross Voyageurs’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Gray Wolf, Moose, Bald Eagle, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 19 trails, 49 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Little Shoepack Lake Trail
The walkLittle Shoepack Lake Trail is a remote out-and-back from the Eks Bay landing to Little Shoepack…
Little Shoepack Lake Trail is a remote out-and-back from the Eks Bay landing to Little Shoepack Lake. Plan on about 1.7 miles each way, or 3.4 miles round trip, and roughly two hours on foot before boat time. The route shares an approach near the Jorgens trail system, then follows about a mile of footpath to the water. The lake shore is the turn-around; it is not part of the separate canoe leg.
Getting to Eks BayThis is not a roadside walk.
This is not a roadside walk. Eks Bay is on the Kabetogama Peninsula, and the trailhead is reached by water. Arrange the boat trip in and back out as part of the outing. The route geometry measures a little longer than the park's rounded distance, so treat the mileage as an estimate.
The lake and campsite connectionIf you are continuing to the paired Little Shoepack and Shoepack backcountry campsites, there…
If you are continuing to the paired Little Shoepack and Shoepack backcountry campsites, there is a separate 0.3-mile canoe leg after the hike. The assigned canoes stay on their respective lakes to limit aquatic invasive species, so getting people and gear to camp can take multiple trips. The campsites are reserved together and each has an outdoor privy; those facilities are at the campsites, not at the landing. Pets are not allowed on park trails or in the backcountry; service animals are permitted.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Voyageurs
10 sightingsGray WolfMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
12 sightingsMooseMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
67 sightingsBald EagleMost seen around 10 AMSighting map
79 sightingsLoonMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
41 sightingsWhite PelicanMost seen around 8 AMSighting map
19 sightingsTrumpeter SwanMost seen around 6 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Voyageurs. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
