BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
December 13 2025
Entry Point 30 - Lake One
Lake One entry point allows overnight paddle only. This entry point is supported by Kawishiwi Ranger Station near the city of Ely, MN. The distance from ranger station to entry point is 21 miles. Access is a canoe landing at 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!
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!
Powwow Trail Backpacking
by slugger
Trip Report
Entry Date:
October 14, 2024
Entry Point:
Isabella Lake
Number of Days:
3
Group Size:
2
Trip Introduction:
We had intentions of coming to the BWCA to hike the Sioux-Hustler trail. Timing wasn't on our side, as the Shell Lake fire was reported and closed the trail, which we discovered the night of 10/12. We changed our plans to instead hike the Powwow Trail. The intention was to hike this in 4 days, 3 nights. But we moved through more quickly and finished it in 3 days. We hiked the trail with our three Siberian Huskies.
Day 1 of 3
Monday, October 14, 2024 We began our morning in Little Isabella River Campground as we drove up the day before and stayed the night here in preparation for our hike after the drive up from SE Wisconsin. We arrived at the trailhead and had our packs and dogs ready to move on the trail by 10am. As expected from our short time to research this trail, the “stem” of the trail was relatively straight, flat and easy hiking until we reached the branch where the loop began. We hiked clockwise, with the goal of reaching the Quadga Lake campsite for our first night. Besides cool temperatures and sporadic rain and freezing rain, the hike was relatively uneventful. A lot of mostly straight hiking with some sections of overgrown grass, which was still relatively easy to navigate. Quadga Lake was beautiful and we experienced a long enough break in the rain to set up camp and make dinner before the rain really started coming down around 6 and we ushered all the huskies and ourselves into the tent to stay dry. 
Day 2 of 3
Tuesday, October 15, 2024 The morning of day two was bitter and frosty. Weather reports were expecting high 20’s and low 30’s for the night. We took it easy and enjoyed our warm oatmeal and hot coffee by the lake as the sun started to come out from the thinning clouds. We didn’t hit the trail until around 10am with the goal of making it at least to Horseshoe Lake, if not all the way to North Wilder Lake. We quickly found out that today made for much slower hiking. A lot more technical walking, ups and downs and careful foot placement. Between Path Lake and Rock of Ages Lake we had to navigate some downed trees on the trail that looked relatively fresh, as well as a very large trunked tree that looked like a recent fall. Despite that extra work the trail around Rock of Ages Lake was beautiful and well worth the extra trouble. With our progress much slower than we expected, we decided that we would indeed camp at Horseshoe Lake for the night and had beautiful sunshine that evening to set out our wet tent and other gear to get completely dried out. It was a beautiful night and wished we could have had a campfire, but with the fire restrictions in place we settled for setting our sleeping bags up by the water with hot water bottles to watch the stars for a short time before we turned in for the night. 
Day 3 of 3
Wednesday, October 16, 2024 We had even more frost from the cold night than the day before and made quick work of breaking camp as we expected we’d be able to hike out today if the last bit of the loop was as easy walking as the first part we hiked on day one. We found more trees down mostly between North Wilder Lake and South Wilder Lake that slowed our progress. When we arrived at Pose Creek, we found it completely flooded. We contemplated wandering upstream to see if we could find a dry option to cross but instead we opted to shed our boots and cross with wet feet. In a warmer season we might have crossed right where the trail ran but after taking a single step forward into the creek and frigid water coming up to my knees, we didn’t want to risk getting so wet in such cool temps (We suspected the middle might reach up to my waist). Using some of the fallen trees nearby, we were able to mostly navigate the crossing by using a combination of the trees, submerged rocks and submerged logs and only got wet up to our knees. The huskies somewhat followed our route but swam through some of the areas that made the most sense to them. All our huskies are confident hikers and were comfortable finding their own way across. After swapping for dry socks, we continued on. As expected, past the Pose Lake Campsite spur trail the hiking was relatively easy, especially after the trail turned back towards the “Wye”. This whole section is relatively easy (compared to the northwestern side of the loop) and we were finally able to pound some quicker miles back to the car.
Plan for a slower pace of hiking between Superstition Lake and Pose Creek, not only because the terrain is harder but also because I expect these are the further out, harder areas for volunteer crews to reach for tree clearing.
discuss this trip report (2 comments) - last post on October 19, 2024