BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
October 31 2025
Entry Point 20 - Angleworm Lake
Number of Permits per Day: 2
Elevation: 1260 feet
Latitude: 48.0659
Longitude: -91.9303
Angleworm Lake - 20
Angelworm Lake HIKING WHOLE LOOP
Entry Date:
July 06, 2015
Entry Point:
Angleworm Lake
Number of Days:
3
Group Size:
3
Three of us went up for an impromptu trip into the Boundary Waters to hike Angleworm Lake. Lets call them Troll and Brown Bear.
Troll and I picked up our permit at the Kawishiwi Ranger station in Ely around 3:30 and drove up to the entry point. The parking lot is 3.1 miles past where Echo Trail (116) becomes a dirt road, and clearly marked with a Forest Service sign that says Angleworm Lake. We drove back to cell signal to send this info to our third member of the group, Brown Bear, since he would be hiking in late and we didn't want him to get lost. Troll and I hiked in at a leisurely pace for the roughly 2 mile hike, deciding on the third and northernmost of the 3 campsites. The first two were low ground by the water with tons of mosquitoes and poor tree selection to fit 3 hammocks. The third site was on high ground with a great view. We took a nap after we poked at our salmon burger dinner. We hiked in fresh meat but it just did not appeal to us, puppy dog feasted that night. Troll set an alarm to when he approximated Brown Bear to come in and went to meet him at the portage crossing and guide him to the site. Brown Bear left the lot at around 9 PM and made it to the site just over an hour later. Brown Bear only had one incident where the trail splits. The left side was blocked with sticks and there was an arrow pointing down the right side, all of which was clearly visible in the daylight but harder to see at night. He figured it out pretty quick though when he saw the other trail dead ended into water. We got in a good night's sleep in our hammocks, falling asleep to the bright moon and loon calls. 
Angleworm Lake
We all woke early around 6, as we usually do when hiking. Troll and Brown Bear made coffee while I sipped some tea. We had brought sausage and bacon and oatmeal but settled on having a bar for breakfast instead so we could get on the trail. Even with my pokey self daring to finish my drink before I finished packing, we were still on the trail by 8:30. We decided to camp at Whiskey Jack that night, so we had a long hike ahead of us. We found a sunny hill where we stopped for a break and noticed the entire hill was covered in blueberries. This was the first of many blueberry stops along the way. Troll and Brown Bear walked ahead of me, stopping every half hour to an hour for me to catch up. Each time I dropped my pack and grabbed some water they loaded up and took off without waiting for me to get my pack back on. I believe the term is "slinky stops". The trail has absolutely no markers, and it is a bit hard to find at times. I realized I was on a game trail and called out for Troll and Brown Bear but got no response and trekked back to find the trail. I then crossed a stream coming from Home Lake and got a wonderful view of Angleworm. I eventually caught up to my hiking partners on a hill eating blueberries and they told me they had timed me and they were waiting for 8 minutes this time. They were at best, a half mile an hour faster than me, and more likely less than that. Troll asked me to smile for a picture and I gave him my best grumpy face. We always have problems with Troll leaving the group behind when hiking, but this time I was left out of earshot without a map, on a poorly marked trail. Who leaves a 22 year old woman in the wilderness without a map when she's only half a mile an hour slower than you? Troll does. That's who. We rolled into Whiskey Jack a little after 12, averaging a little over 2 mph including breaks. We were all quite hot and a bit beat from that walk, and we all got a nice dip in Whiskey Jack and set up our gear. We nibbled snacks for lunch and took a nice hammock nap. The breeze kept the mosquitoes at bay very well. We fried some tortillas with BBQ pork and Bruno Uusto bread cheese for dinner over a campfire. We got a great view of Venus around dusk and fell asleep under a blanket of stars. 
Angleworm Lake, Whisky Jack Lake
We woke up to civilization blaring in our ears as Brown Bear left his 6 AM alarm on his tablet. After several minutes he got out of his bug net and dug in his pack to turn it off. He then proceeded to start talking until Troll and I growled at him to let us sleep longer. We got up around 8 and boiled some water for coffee in the Aeropress. We decided to not do breakfast again and just eat bars as needed and packed up. We were on the trail by 9:30, later than usual, but we weren't in much of a rush to leave and go back to civilization. I resigned myself to hiking alone this time and made sure to study Troll's topo map thoroughly before heading out. We weren't along the water too much this last day, but we got fantastic views of a marsh below us. I was really hoping to see a moose. I made sure to stop anytime I found an above average blueberry patch, knowing I likely won't be up again before they are gone for the year. We hopped off the trail at the apparent logging campsite and saw the two giant tanks and giant gas lamp stashed in the woods. We proceeded into a rockier section of the trail where we had to find it a few times. Luckily there were small cairns most places that the trail was hard to find. With a map and decent trail experience it is certainly navigable but those cairns sure helped. Noobs prepare or beware. We descended to the bottom horn of Angleworm and spotted the grove of dead trees in the swampier section. I reached the water and found Brown Bear and Troll looking around for the trail. We all knew which direction we had to go and noticed that the beaver dam was way too straight and figured there used to be a wood bridge under it. We walked across carefully and followed the switchbacks up the steep rock face. We made another blueberry pit stop at an amazing lookout point and proceeded to the portage crossing. We knew that the walk from the portage back to the car is the easiest and flattest section, but also significantly buggier. We hurried through the last two miles without a break. This end section was the first time our shoulders started to ache, as we were excited to get our packs off. Brown Bear told me that he finished before Troll, because Troll rolled his ankle a bit and was moving slower. Hmmm. It was bittersweet to leave, but we'll be back in another section of the BWCA in a few weeks, this time with a homemade kevlar canoe. 
Angleworm Lake Angleworm Lake