BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
September 17 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!
Perent Lake
Entry Date:
July 09, 2009
Entry Point:
Hog Creek
Number of Days:
3
Group Size:
1
Left the Twin Cities around 2 in the afternoon and arrived at Sawbill Outfitters around 6:30. As I got out of my car at Sawbill, I instantly heard someone ferociously banging on a pot in the campground. Not only had a bear come into someone's campsite, it had tried to get into someone's car. I picked up my permit and solo canoe and then headed over to the Kawishiwi Lake Campground to spend the night before entering Hog Creek. I stayed at the same site two friends and I stayed at the night before a long trip in 2006 out of Kawishiwi Lake. 
My alarm was set for 5am but I was woken up by a group entering Kawishiwi Lake at 4:45. Impressive. The mosquitoes were so bad, I quickly took down my tent and got into the car to eat breakfast in peace. I made it over to Hog Creek around 5:15 and was on the water paddling by 5:30. Despite having perfect weather early, there was also no wind, making the mosquitoes absolutely terrible. After reading that the only true portage along Hog Creek was usually able to be skipped if you line your canoe through two sets of rapids, I tried lining the canoe. This was a bad idea, as it took me about 20 minutes to get around the 15 rod portage. I would take the portage on the way out.
About a half mile downstream from here I came to my first beaver dam, which I was able to slide over with some poling. Unfortunately, the small current took my canoe into the side of the creek after clearing the dam and like an idiot, I hastily just pushed off shore with my paddle and swamped my canoe. I jumped out myself, which allowed my gear to stay in the canoe. After pulling my gear out of the canoe and putting it up on the beaver dam, I pulled myself up and dumped out the canoe. Then I set off again.
Amidst curve after curve, I was slapping mosquitoes non-stop. Finally about 2/3rds of the way to Perent Lake a breeze kicked up and the bugs subsided. As I got closer to Perent Lake the creek widened a bit and the paddling became a bit more pleasant. About two hours after leaving the entry, I was on Perent Lake, which was rolling with whitecaps already at 7:30. Still a little antsy from my swamping, I was able to get over to the close campsite just west of the Hog Creek's entrance into Perent Lake. I tied everything in, took out the binoculars to see if the island site was open. My plan was to head west to the next site west along the shore to see if it was open, then head over to the island site if it was taken. It was taken, and I had to paddle about a 1/4 mile across the wind-whipped main portion of the lake. I made it safely, glad to confirm the site was indeed open.
After unloading my canoe, I set up camp and put up my gear that had gotten soaked to dry. The rest of my day was spent napping, eating, reading, exploring the island I was on, fishing from shore and more reading. I enjoyed steak, asparagus and tomato and mozzarella salad for dinner. Then I ended the evening with some scotch, a cigar and the Twins game as I sat on a rocky point looking at a windy Perent Lake.
I had hoped to do a lot of fishing and a day-trip into Perent Lake over my two days on Perent Lake but thus far was unable to do either because of the wind.
I was woken up around 12:30 by some even stronger wind and rain. I quickly got out to put the rain fly on my tent, which had all my gear in it, then jumped back in my hammock. 
I woke up to wind around 8am. A peek out of my hammock confirmed there were also whitecaps on Perent. It was also cooler this morning. I donned my fleece and made myself a breakfast of eggs, sausage, green peppers and cheese. After breakfast, I finished reading "A Season for Wilderness." It was my second time reading the book and it's still fun to read. Great Boundary Waters book. I fished some more from different points around shore without success and then decided that I was going to eat lunch and then head out. I was very disappointed at how bored I was but with nothing else to read and too much wind for me to day-trip west into the Perent River or go out and fish by myself, I decided to leave.
After struggling to get the canoe launched because of waves, I was able to paddle the waves easier heading east with the wind and soon I was back on the curvy Hog Creek. The weather was perfect once I got on the creek and I really enjoyed the couple hours of tripping on my way out. I took some timed pictures on the portage along Hog Creek and finally made it out in the early afternoon.
All in all, it was a good experience and I learned some lessons that will allow me to plan a better solo trip in the future, but I learned that I do really enjoy company while in the BWCA.
Lessons learned:
1. Bring better bug spray/lotion 2. On my next solo, I need to travel each day. Small lakes, rivers and creeks so the wind is less of a factor. 3. Bring more than one book. 
