BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
January 08 2025
Entry Point 29 - North Kawishiwi River
Number of Permits per Day: 1
Elevation: 1249 feet
Latitude: 47.9543
Longitude: -91.5641
North Kawishiwi River - 29
HopalongHowie's 2nd Trip (This time with Pa!!)
Entry Date:
August 29, 2013
Entry Point:
Wood Lake
Number of Days:
5
Group Size:
3
We’d planned to head on to Tiger Bay today, but we were pretty worn out from the day before, with joints and muscles unused to the tasks they’d been asked to perform, so we elected to spend another day at this camp. When the rain started up again pretty soon we were glad we’d decided to stay. When the rain turned first to sleet and then to snow, we were very glad we’d stayed. From camp we watched as several groups left the lake headed out. Nanny asked if they knew something about the weather that we didn’t know. It was so cold and rainy we headed to our tents for warmth and shelter. Southerners are not used to this type of weather in September. Late in the day the weather improved and Donnie and I did a little fishing in the SW cove. I missed a hard strike on a popper, but that was the only action.
The night was cold, the fire felt especially good, the drinks were fine and we hit the sleeping bags soon after dark. We’ve all been enjoying the Mountain House food, which is really pretty darn good, besides being easy to carry and to prepare. We also discovered that a certain chipmunk had apparently had positive interaction with other humans at this site. He was certainly very social and very interested in our trail mix.
Quote of the day (from me after realizing that setting up your sleeping bags on a side-ways slant is not the way to go): “Come on Nanny, scootch over here an shore me up!”
We fished all day today.
The weather was beautiful we all caught fish on Rapalas, Mepps and spinners. Camping in the middle of a small lake like this gave us ample opportunity to return to camp to take a break, stretch, eat, etc.
Camp was very nice the landing is steep but where you step out of the canoe it's stable, flat and not too slippery. While fishing the North side of Good Dad hooked a pike on a rapala that wasn't very big but while unhooking the fish he somehow got re-hooked in the tail. So now Dad has the fish in the water and is trying to grab the hook out and manages to release the fish but not without hooking himself in his little finger first.
Shit eh?
For the record, prior to this trip there was an email string originated by yours truly, sent to Dad and Royce regarding the barbs on our hooks. I was of the opinion that 3 people fishing from an 18 foot canoe would increase the likely-hood of hooking one another and that we should pinch all of our barbs. Besides, we catch and release almost everything we catch except for a single meal. But alas I was the only one who heeded my warning and Dad's hook that now found itself in his pinky did indeed have barbs. So we pulled in to the nearby campsite to get it out and cleaned up, we had our first aid kit and a multitool so we were able to clip the hook and push it back out and through and it didn't even bother my old man the rest of the trip. Of course he's about the strongest fella I know so no surprises there. I warned them that if I got hooked like that I would be going through and clipping their barbs for them. We kept fishing, ate shore lunch wild rice soup for supper and fished until sundown then had a decent fire before bed. 
Got up and headed to Washte for some bass fishing. Didn't catch much so returned to camp and waited out the rain. Dad and Royce were ready to go out again but I considered staying back and relaxing but they convinced me to go and I was happy I did because I ended up catching the biggest largemouth I've ever caught. It was rainy, windy and we were hiding from the wind behind an island and it was the highlight of the weekend for me. 
Lessons Learned: 1. I wish I had done this with my Dad sooner. After this he was diagnosed with oral cancer. He beat it however and I hope to get back up here with him again soon. 2. Mepps. Dressed Spinners. 3. Keep up the journal 4. Gravity water filter works fantastic but bring water for the first leg. 5. Don't store your clean, dry, after-the-trip clothes in the bed of the truck even with a cover. 6. Barbless hooks!!! 7. Make time for camping trips with my sons. 