Boundary Waters Trip Reports, Blog, BWCA, BWCAW, Quetico Park

BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog

March 19 2024

Entry Point 30 - Lake One

Lake One entry point allows overnight paddle only. This entry point is supported by Kawishiwi Ranger Station near the city of Ely, MN. The distance from ranger station to entry point is 21 miles. Access is a canoe landing at Lake One.

Number of Permits per Day: 13
Elevation: 1230 feet
Latitude: 47.9391
Longitude: -91.4792
My son Remy and I, and my friend Keith and his son Charlie put our canoes into Lake one at 9:30 Monday morning after dropping off a car at the Snowbank Lake landing. Lake One can be tricky to navigate. On our way to Lake Two we turned East too early and ended up paddling about a mile out of our way into a dead-end bay before we realized our mistake. We blamed the fact that Lake One was split between Fisher Maps #10 and #4 for our error. If the entire lake had been visible at once on a single map, we would not have made the wrong turn. Once we got back on course we portaged the 30 rods into a pond and then portaged the 40 rods into Lake Two. The weather was nice, and there was a bit of a tail wind out of the West. We stopped for lunch on the shore of Lake Two. After lunch we canoed through the North end of Lake Three and into Lake Four. We stopped for the night at a campsite on the West shore of Lake Four, just North of the channel heading toward Hudson Lake. We had to battle swarms of mosquitoes as we set up the tents. We then had a nice refreshing swim. Because we had brought steaks along for the first night, we didn't go fishing.

On Tuesday morning we had a bacon and eggs breakfast then packed up camp and headed out in our canoes. As we canoed past our campsite, we realized that Remy & I had left our hammocks pitched between trees. We landed again and quickly packed them up. Once again we had beautiful weather. We paddled East and completed 3 short portages before entering Hudson Lake. The 105 rod portage into Lake Insula was exhausting! Lake Insula is a large gorgeous lake broken up by multiple islands and penninsulas. We had lunch at a campsite on a large island just East of Hudson Lake. It felt like we had a tail wind as we were heading East, and then as we turned North it seemed like the wind shifted and was at our backs once again. We navigated Lake Insula flawlessly and camped for the night on the island just West of Williamson Island. After setting up the tents and a refreshing swim, Remy & I got back into the canoe and tried to catch some fish. We had no luck! At 9PM that night, just as we were going to bed, a thunderstorm rolled through. That night I was awakened several times by the loud croaking of bullfrogs from the shallows around our island. What noisy neighbors!

By Wednesday morning the weather had cleared, but the wind was now coming from the Northwest, pretty much in our faces. We paddled to the North end of Lake Insula and tackled the largest portage of our trip. The 180 rod walk to Kiana Lake actually seemed easier than the 105 rod carry into Lake Insula. We headed onward into Thomas Lake where we really started feeling the headwind. We finally made it to the campsite just Northeast of the portage into Thomas Pond in time for lunch. After lunch we proceeded across Thomas Pond and into Thomas Creek after hiking across the famous Kekekabic Trail. We managed to easily run the rapids in Thomas Creek and avoid the 2 short portages. We camped for the night on Hatchet Lake at the northern campsite. It was cool and windy, so we didn't swim. There was lots of threatening weather going by to the North of us, but we stayed dry. After supper we canoed back to Thomas Creek to fish and look for moose. No luck on either count, but we did see a beaver swimmming.

The weather was nice again Thursday morning, but the wind was out of the West which was the direction we were heading. We portaged into Ima Lake and canoed across it. Before portaging into Jordan Lake, we watched a bald eagle sitting in a tree get harrassed repeatedly by a seagull. The narrow channel leading into Jordan Lake is quite beautiful. It is narrow like a river with big rock outcroppings. We paddled across Jordan, Cattyman, Adventure, and Jitterbug Lakes. We found the Eastern campsite on Ahsub Lake taken, so we camped at the Western campsite which had a great place for swimming in front of it. There was a very brave loon in front of the campsite who didn't seem to mind if we got close to it. We tried our luck at fishing, but only caught 1 smallmouth which was too small to eat. Between 5:00 and 7:30 that evening we saw a number of canoes heading across Ahsub Lake from Disappointment Lake to Jitterbug Lake. We weren't sure where they were planning to camp, but it was getting late.

On Friday we awoke again to good weather. We paddled the length of Disappointment Lake and portaged into to Parent Lake and then on to Snowbank Lake. It was July 4th, and as we entered Snowbank Lake the sounfd of firecrackers reminded us we weren't in the wilderness anaymore. After a brief splash war on our way across Snowbank, we made it to the landing and our car was still there. What a great trip!

Kicking Back on the Kawishiwi

by thlipsis29
Trip Report

Entry Date: May 17, 2011
Entry Point: Lake One
Number of Days: 6
Group Size: 4

Trip Introduction:
Despite its popularity, I'd never done a trip from Lake One and I was curious to see this area. Also, I'd never done a trip with only four people; we're usually a group of eight, but for a variety of reasons only four of us could make it this year and I was shocked how much faster you can travel and get things done with a group this size. Lastly, this is only the second time in thirteen trips that I've paddled without any rookies, and it's amazing the difference that makes as well.

Day 1 of 6


Tuesday, May 17, 2011

We arrived in Ely shortly after 6:00 p.m. Had to stop at Spirit of the Wilderness to pick up our canoes and then off to Sir G's for dinner. During dinner we realized that we had forgot to pack the cast iron skillet, so we'd have to stop some place in the morning to either buy one or rent one. I have to admit that I was concerned this might be a bad omen for our trip but thankfully I'd be wrong about that. After dinner we went back to Erik's (Buzz17) house and started packing gear and had some time to X-Box it for awhile. Nice way to kick back and enjoy the time before getting up at 4:30 on Wednesday morning.

 



Day 2 of 6


Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Got up at 4:30 and finished packing a few odds and ends and made it to Britton's by 5:15. It was weird how much faster things went with only four guys. Usually we're there for almost an hour with eight, but this year we were in and out in less than 40 minutes. Stopped at TGO's place to pick up rainbow chubs and some herring and spent some time chatting with him about the DNR and their new restrictions on untreated ciscos because of VHS (Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia). Interesting conversation to say the least. One last stop at Canadian Waters to rent a cast aluminum skillet and off to entry point 30. We were there by 8:00 a.m.

I honestly don't think I have entered the BWCA with such perfect weather. Temps were in the low 50's with sunshine and calm winds. All of us were in shock and this was the first time in five or six years that I didn't have to wear my rain gear during the trip in. Because we were a smaller group, we had toyed with the idea of heading east into Insula, figuring we could make some good time, but for a variety of reasons we decided to stick with our original destination near the split in the Kawishiwi River.

As we paddled, we were really awed by the beauty of the river; it was nothing short of serene. What was even stranger is that every campsite we went by was vacant. We eventually decided to claim site 1148 just after the river splits into the north and south branch; it is a beautiful peninsula site with a lot of space. The only drawback to this site was the lack of dry downed timber. A few trees must have blown over this winter or spring, but they were really green.

After getting camp set up, we headed back up to a set of rapids we had portaged by on our way in and managed to land some nice walleye and several northerns over 30". Not a bad way to start the trip. Cooked up the steaks for dinner and fished another set of rapids in the evening without a lot of success. But we already had a start on Thursday's dinner, so we weren't too concerned.  

 



Day 3 of 6


Thursday, May 19, 2011

What another beautiful morning! Temps in the low 50's again and mostly sunny. This was the first time since 2006 I didn't have to sleep with long underwear on (sorry if that is too much information, but this was weird considering the below freezing temps we'd been dealing with the previous four trips).

After breakfast we headed to the rapids we had fished the night before and this turned out to be one of our best days fishing ever. In the morning I caught a 19" and 20" walleye and my canoe partner, Erik, caught at least six northern in the 32"-34" range. Brett, one of the guys in the other canoe, managed to catch a beautiful 25" walleye.

We went back to camp for an early dinner, a fish fry, and then decided to head back to the same set of rapids for the evening bite, and what a night! Around 7:45 I thought I got snagged on a rock as I'm prone to do with a jig and a minnow, but then I felt the line tug the other way. Whatever it was it felt solid. After about two or three minutes of trying to get this thing to the surface I get the first glimpse of the monster walleye that had decided to take my 1/16 oz Blakemore Roadrunner. After a another minute or so I manage to land a 29" 9 lb walleye, by far the biggest one I have ever caught. I'd always hoped to catch a 5-7 lbs fish up there, so obviously I can check this off my bucket list. After a quick pic, I released the fish and continued fishing.

About a half hour later I hook into another good fish that ends up being a 26" 6.5 lbs walleye. About five minutes after that my friend Trevor, in the other canoe, lands a 26.25" walleye.

Finally, Erik hooks into something massive only to discover that he has a 15" walleye on his ultralight that a fat (and I mean fat) 36"+ northern is trying to eat. He manages to keep the fish on the line for two or three minutes and gets it to the surface two or three times, but unfortunately the northern eventually spits the walleye out. The good news is we were able to keep the walleye.

 



Day 4 of 6


Friday, May 20, 2011

Another beautiful morning, but quite honestly we were hoping for some overcast skies because our plan was to head up to Conchu Lake, a designated trout lake, and catch some brook trout. After catching a few nice northern on slip bobbers and herring while eating breakfast, we then headed up to Conchu, which was about a 35-40 minute paddle. And for the first time during our trip we started seeing other canoes; for the first two days we had been the only people staying in this area and the solitude was much appreciated.

Conchu is a crystal clear 200 hundred acre lake. I think we could see up to 15' deep, which didn't bode well with the high sun. In fact we could see schools of 20-30 large mouth bass following our lures and canoes around the lake. They were obviously in their pre-spawn more-interested-in-reproducing than eating frame of mind, though we did manage to land a few in the 14"-16" range. Unfortunately we never came close to catching a trout.

After dinner, an awesome fish-bake, we went back to our honey-hole at the rapids, but there wasn't much action. Trevor managed to land a 15" walleye, and we caught a few small northern, but the hogs had apparently eaten enough or moved on.

 



Day 5 of 6


Saturday, May 21, 2011

We finally woke up to an overcast and breezy day with some sprinkles, which was more like the weather we had grown accustom to on our previous trips. We were also aware that this was the day that Rev. Harold Camping had predicted that Jesus would come back so maybe the weather was a prelude to the end of the world. I had told the guys prior to leaving that our trip might get cut short if Jesus came back on Saturday, but there wasn't anything I'd be able to do about that and there wouldn't be any refunds :^) I also told them that I'm post- tribulational in my theology, so even if Jesus did show up, he'd have no choice but to leave me behind to experience the Tribulation, but at least I'd get my fishing in. (For those of you who don't know, I am a pastor, but have no idea how and why people bother to pay attention to someone like Camping because the Scriptures clearly state that NO ONE knows the hour when Christ will return, and he only makes the rest of us look like fools...but that's another topic for another website).

Once again, we caught some nice northern in the morning while eating breakfast and then Erik and I decided to head to the rapids we had fished on Wednesday afternoon while Trevor and Brett decided to try the honey hole once again. We caught a few smaller fish and then decided to troll our way to the rapids where the other canoe was. About half way back, Erik snags a really nice eater walleye so we decide to stop and check the area out by jigging. I'm glad we did. Much to my surprise, I limited out in about an hour and a half--only the second time I've ever done that. Erik picked up one more really nice fish and then the bite turned off.

We eventually met up with Brett and Trevor at the honey hole, but it had all but dried up. So we went back to camp for dinner and then the wind and rain came. We had hoped to get out for the evening bite, but the weather pretty much squelched that idea. So we hung around camp drinking coffee and fishing for a few more northern on the slip bobbers and herring.

 



Day 6 of 6


Sunday, May 22, 2011

Given that we had less than a two hour paddle to get back to the entry point, we had a very leisurely morning eating breakfast and packing up camp. Thankfully the rain had stopped early Saturday evening so things had a chance to dry out a little bit, though they were still wet. On our way back, we scouted out a few other areas Steve Nelson from Spirit of the Wilderness had told us about, and they look very promising for our 2012 trip. It was also nice that we took our time because we would have otherwise probably driven through the tornadoes that hit the Twin Cities on our way back to Rochester.

As I alluded to above, unless something changes, our plans are to go back to this area next year. I was shocked that an area so close to one of the busiest entry points could provide such solitude and amazing fishing. I just hope it doesn't get overrun now :^)

 


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