BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
June 02 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!
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.
