BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
June 02 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
First Solo Canoe Trip - BWCA Lake One
Entry Date:
May 20, 2025
Entry Point:
Lake One
Number of Days:
4
Group Size:
1
Canoe Gear: Northstar NW Solo, Bent Paddle (Carbon), Kayak Paddle
Day 1 (3.5 miles, 2:39) - I entered the water at around 7:50 AM, and drove in from Timber Trail Lodge. I attempted to start a bit earlier because the wind was suppose to get worse, with gusts up to 40 mph at around 10 AM. The weather was mid 40-50s with a severe wind advisory and cloudy conditions. Once I exited the inlets of the access point for Lake One I was greeted with the warned winds. This was when I realized that my canoe was pretty hard to control, likely due to the extremely strong wind and the weight distribution with just my pack. I called it pretty early after around 2 hours of paddling, ending at one of the campsites near the first two portages into Lake Two. I felt a little discouraged at first but then after setting up camp and watching other canoes come through I felt much better about my decision especially as a solo canoer.
Day 2 (9.2 miles, 5:44)- I entered and made the first two portages into Lake Two then continued up into another portage toward Rifle Lake. I then took on the largest portage of the trip into Bridge Lake (which was ~.5 miles one way which definitely took alot of energy since I had to double back for the pack). However, today I decided to try splitting my food pack into the bow, and pack in the stern which made for a game changer of an experience. This was by far my favorite area that I explored, it was quite secluded, and I made a note on my own map of campsites along here before the next portage into Lake Four that I would love to camp at during the next trip. I had bold dreams of contuing my loop into Fire Lake however by 1:00, I had been paddling for around 4-5 hours (including the portage times) and was feeling pretty drained. So I decided to cut my losses from Day 1 and cut into Lake Three and camped near the portage at the bottom half of the loop toward Hudson Lake.
Day 3 (12.2 miles, 5:11) -I started to begin heading back to the start in and continued through Lake two and found my way back to Lake One at the same campsite I was at for Day 1. I knew I wanted to exit pretty early, but still wanted a decent paddle in the morning to savor the last day. I explored around a few other campsites nearby but they were filled so I figured why fix what doesnt need fixing.
Day 4 (4.4 miles, 1:23)- Paddled the last mile or so back into the access point. Then drove 9 hours home, very happy.
Some of my takeaways were:
* Important of weight distribution especially in a light solo canoe * Ursack bags are not chipmunk resistant * Solo was alot of fun, and I hope to do this regularly. It is nice to be able to disconnect and have a different kind of problem solving for alot of the stuff that came up during the trip.
The bugs were minimal, but on Thursday, when it was pretty blue sky with minimal wind in the campsite, you could tell the mosquitos and flys were ready to come out.
