BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
January 05 2025
Entry Point 30 - 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!
Fall 2016 Lake Agnes Trip
Entry Date:
September 07, 2016
Entry Point:
Moose/Portage River (north)
Number of Days:
5
Group Size:
4
We woke up early and headed out from the Spirit of the Wilderness bunkhouse around 5:00am. It was the second straight year we had stayed at the bunkhouse and again we had it to ourselves, which was nice as we did some last minute pack organizing and shuffling on Tuesday night. We had gear and packs spread all over the first floor of the house! We headed over to Britton's Cafe, but were disappointed to find out it wasn't open this morning. We called an audible and went over to the Holiday gas station to grab some breakfast before heading up the Echo Trail. The benefit to not eating at Britton's was that we were getting a really early start this morning. We had the canoes loaded and were paddling just as the sun was rising over the trees.[paragraph break] 
[paragraph break] This trip I was joined by my Dad, Jarod, and Chris. All of us had been to Agnes before, just never all of us together. These 3 guys have been on more trips with me than anybody else, so it was great that we could all finally go out on the same trip. We made it to campsite #1806 by 10:30am! This campsite is not our top choice, because the whole camp is on a slope. But, we spend much of our time fishing the western side of the lake, and it makes it nicer for the day we venture over to Stuart. We had camp set and we were out fishing by Noon. This was going to fell like a bonus day, with how much time we were going to be able to spend on the water. We quickly found the walleyes, which never seem to be a problem on Agnes.[paragraph break] 
[paragraph break] The fun part about the first day is that we were just fishing for fun! We had steaks thawing out for a big first night dinner. We spent the rest of the day fishing different spots, and even trying for different species. We finally succumbed to hunger and headed to camp to eat steaks cooked over a nice cedar fire. Along with the steaks, we had some instant mashed potatoes, which made for a nice hearty meal.[paragraph break] 
[paragraph break] After dinner was ate, we did the dishes and made our way back on to the lake. We wanted to make an emphasis of having earlier dinners, so that we could be fishing at sunset. We went out and decided to try and catch some crappies. Over the last 5 years, the crappie population has just seemed to take off in Agnes Lake. We have ran into others that have also experienced this. We have started catching them in different parts of the lake as well, so they must be doing very well. Well, Dad got the first one of the trip, and like usual it was a beauty![paragraph break] 
[paragraph break] We fished a while longer, and Chris got his first crappie too. Then, we went back to camp, to enjoy the sunset and a fire. This had been a great first day! The weather had cooperated and we enjoyed hours of great fishing.
Morning came and we awoke to cloudy, cool, and windy conditions. It looked threatening, but fortunately didn't turn into much. We had hope as we were getting breaks in the clouds from time to time.[paragraph break] 
[paragraph break] We went out fishing, and the weather improved a little every hour we were out. Today we were tasked with catching a few walleyes for a special lunch I had planned. It didn't take long, before we picked up where we left off yesterday. Walleyes were willing and ready to eat our jigs everywhere we drifted around.[paragraph break] 
[paragraph break] We went in for lunch with enough fish for our meal. The plan was to have fish tacos. Everyone had eaten versions of these on previous trips, so there was a little excitement. We filleted up the walleyes and then chunked them into nugget-sized pieces. Then we coated them with Shorelunch mixed with dry Taco Seasoning mix. We fried up the fish pieces really crispy and then served them on tortillas with chipolte mayo, coleslaw mix, and lime juice. These are the highlight of every trip![paragraph break] 
[paragraph break] After lunch, we changed paddle partners. Dad wanted to go pike fishing, so him and Chris went out to throw spinner baits up in the shallows. Jarod and I were content fishing for crappies and walleyes, so we jigged. Jarod was the only one who hadn't caught a walleye yet, but that changed pretty quick![paragraph break] 
[paragraph break] The other guys met up with us before too long. They had moderate success catching some northerns, but nothing too big. We all worked hard to put a few more eater walleyes on the stringer before dinner. With enough to eat for the night, we soon made our way to camp and prepared a delicious meal of pan fried walleyes with some teriyaki noodles. It was another great feast![paragraph break] 
[paragraph break] We headed out to fish until sunset, with no pressure to catch anything for keeping. Before dark seems to be the best time to chase those big crappies, as the main lake calms down. I finally boated my first Agnes crappie for the year![paragraph break] 
[paragraph break] The day ended picturesque, given how it looked like weather was going to affect the whole day. We fished late, finally making our way back to camp with the sun disappearing on the horizon. Dad and I got back to camp first, and I took the opportunity to photograph the other guys as they made their way to camp. An amazing ending to our second day of the trip![paragraph break] 
This morning we awoke and took the time to have a big breakfast. We made pancakes and heated up some pre-cooked bacon. After that we went out and fished. It was a slower morning that we were used to, but we still caught a few fish. We had planned to head up to the waterfall on the north end, but we decided not to push it with a repaired canoe paddle that had to get us home the next day. After lunch we stayed around camp and did some exploring. We hike a good ways into the woods around camp. We found lots of cool looking mushrooms and some very large deer tracks. We went back out, hoping to scrounge up enough walleyes for our last dinner. Fortunately, they cooperated again and we again had a superb fish fry.[paragraph break] 
[paragraph break] After dinner, we knew our trip was coming to a close. Instead of going out fishing that last night, we worked at readying for an earlier departure in the morning. We broke down rods and reels and cleaned and packed up what we could around camp. Then we just relaxed and took it all in one last night.[paragraph break] 
[paragraph break] We sat around watching the different animals and birds around us. A beaver kept us entertained for a while, slapping it's tail loudly from time to time. It cruised back and forth in front of our campsite several different times. The last night of the year always brings a little sadness, knowing it may be six or more months before I get the chance to return to God's Country.[paragraph break] 
This morning we awoke and took the time to have a big breakfast. We made pancakes and heated up some pre-cooked bacon. After that we went out and fished. It was a slower morning that we were used to, but we still caught a few fish. We had planned to head up to the waterfall on the north end, but we decided not to push it with a repaired canoe paddle that had to get us home the next day. After lunch we stayed around camp and did some exploring. We hike a good ways into the woods around camp. We found lots of cool looking mushrooms and some very large deer tracks. We went back out, hoping to scrounge up enough walleyes for our last dinner. Fortunately, they cooperated again and we again had a superb fish fry.[paragraph break] [paragraph break] After dinner, we knew our trip was coming to a close. Instead of going out fishing that last night, we worked at readying for an earlier departure in the morning. We broke down rods and reels and cleaned and packed up what we could around camp. Then we just relaxed and took it all in one last night.[paragraph break] [paragraph break] We sat around watching the different animals and birds around us. A beaver kept us entertained for a while, slapping it's tail loudly from time to time. It cruised back and forth in front of our campsite several different times. The last night of the year always brings a little sadness, knowing it may be six or more months before I get the chance to return to God's Country.[paragraph break]
We rose early the final morning! I was actually packing up the tent before the sun came up. We were a little leery of what the wind was going to do today, plus we had a duck tape canoe paddle. We wolfed down our oatmeal and coffee, and made it to the south side of Lake Agnes as the fog was till burning off the lake. We enjoyed a nice quiet paddle through the rivers, seeing plenty of wildlife including Trumpeter Swans and an American Black Duck.[paragraph break] 
[paragraph break] We made great time even with the bum paddle. The wind did start to pick up as we hit the southern end of Nina Moose. By then, we really didn't care because all we head now was some river paddling between us and the vehicles. As we portaged our stuff to the parking lot, we ran into a group going in on a loop trip. They were going to loop around to EP14. One guy was driving the vehicle up to that parking lot and then taking a bike back to meet his group. Neat idea! We got one of their group members to take a group photo, before we headed back to Ely.[paragraph break] 
[paragraph break] We had another unbelievable trip! Lake Agnes and the surrounding area has been the place of so many great memories with many people. This year's trip was no exception. One of the things we decided for next year was to give Agnes a break. We are going to break our annual tradition and go in on Stuart next fall. It will give us the possibility to day trip up to Iron Lake, and really give us a chance to explore all Stuart has to offer. I will sure miss Agnes, but new adventures are always fun too. We will be back soon, old friend, I promise!