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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!

another great trip

by vinnie
Trip Report

Entry Date: August 28, 2011
Entry Point: Lake One
Number of Days: 6
Group Size: 2

Trip Introduction:

Report


The wife and i started our trip out with the the drive up on 8/26/11.We drove up to tofte and stayed our first night at the bluefin resort.The next morning we took the back roads over to Ely, we like these back roads, great for seeing wildlife.We then spent the day in Ely, and i didn't see one BWCA.com sticker anywhere.After a day in Ely we headed to fall lake campground for one night. Sunday we headed in on lake one.At the entry it was foggy and smokey from the fires on pagami creek. We paddled lake one looking for campsites, all taken but one. Didn't like that one, so we headed to lake two, same thing all taken but one. On to lake three we go. We take the island site just east of entering lake three, we have stayed on this site before and like it, so we were glad it was empty. The people that had it before us left the fire smoldering ( not good ). We spented the next day relaxing, something we don't get to do that much because of our busy life. On tuesday we dicided to do a small daytripping route. We went to Horseshoe lake, Brewis lake, Harbor lake, North Wilderlake. This is where the trip got fun for me. the creek/ boggy marsh from North wilder to kawishiwi river/hudson lake had very little water and a lot of stinky mud knee deep.I was ready to tackle this creek one way or another. The wife was a good sport and didn't make me turn around and go back the way we came. even thou she hates the stinky mud of bogs.I ended up portageing this creek almost all the way to the creek that takes you to Zitkala lake, from there we were able to push our way with our paddles until we made it to kawishiwi river.This took us about two hrs to do this creek.Glad we were only day tripping, I could of never done it if i was carrying gear.we then headed up to fire lake then to lake four and back to camp on lake three.My wife then spent the rest of the day washing the stinky mud from her clothes and body.The next day we spent fishing on lake three and exploring our island. Didn't catch a thing, last yr i caught the biggest northern i have ever caught just off this island.Spent the rest of our trip just relaxing and watching a family of chipmunks on our site. We normaly travel and do a route when we go to the BW, but this yr we just basecamped and relaxed. Friday we headed out. The fire figthers were spraying water around the portages between lakes one and two on our way out.After leaveing we headed back to tofte and the north shore for the day to shower and clean up. a sauna and hot tub at the american inn. We then hiked the clauldrens and some shore lines of lake superior. All in all it was a nice vacation and relaxing.

 


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