BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
September 22 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!
A bachelor party for the ages!
Entry Date:
September 05, 2025
Entry Point:
Lake One
Exit Point:
Little Gabbro Lake (33)
Number of Days:
3
Group Size:
6
We stayed in a bunkhouse in Ely the night before departure which I always like doing. In my experience, it allows the group to have some pre-trip bonding time before we embark on the journey. In this time, I learned that my least experienced BWCAer/outdoorsmen didn't pack any socks, long underwear, or long pants when we were looking at an average of 44 degrees over the next few days. He ended up getting a few things and doing fine but it did give me a little bit of a scare. After packing our GORP, playing some poker, and doing some planning on the maps we were ready to sleep.
The next day we packed up and had some breakfast at Britton's and set out. The day was rainy, windy, and cold but we were (fairly) prepared for it. We had a handful of portages ~25 rods along our route today and one 122 rod portage at the end. Otherwise, the challenge was surviving the rain and headwind off of Kawishiwi river. Throughout the day one of our canoe groups had a chant/song going to pass the time. "Ninety-nine baggies of GORP on the wall. ninety-nine baggies of GORP..." and "Heeeeee-Ho, Heeeeee-Ho" are a few of them. For wildlife, we saw about 6 swans, a beaver, a muskrat, and a bald eagle who swooped to grab a fish out of the water! We were really taking our sweet time on day 1 because we started paddling at 11:00 am and arrived at the southern part of Kawishiwi at 5:00 PM. We were hoping to stay on Gabbro so we had a decision to make about whether we were going to continue on and risk not finding an open site. After a vote, we unanimously chose to roll the dice and keep going. We completed the 122 rodder and went on to Little Gabbro and then to Gabbro. We were very lucky to find our #1 site (#1715) open! We arrived at around 7:00 PM and immediately divided into groups to get everything ready. We soon realized we were shorted a sleeping pad and that our day one steaks had barely defrosted but we kept on keeping on. After painstakingly getting the steaks ready and setting camp up, we were relieved to finally get some sleep. As the group leader, I decided to take the burden of sleeping with no sleeping pad and bundled up in all my warm sleeping gear and laid a puffy jacket below my sleeping bag which actually worked out pretty well as I slept very soundly. 
Day 2 was a much more relaxing day. After all, we had earned it by pushing so hard at the end of day 1. Breakfast was pre-cooked bacon and pancakes and somehow my guys were able to get a fire going with the wet wood that would go on to burn until we left the next morning (28 hours). #1715 proved to be a great site! It lies on a corner so we had about a 270 degree view of the lake. The positioning of the fire grate forces you to look out over the lake which is where people were for most of the day. We were all very happy to welcome the sun as we had not seen him at all the day previous. After breakfast, a few of us went out on a fishing excursion into the most northern part of Gabbro where we came upon a marshy area filled with lily pads. We were very successful at having fun and enjoying the scenery and were very unsuccessful at catching fish. We had 1 bite the whole time but it was a fun little paddle back into the marsh. A few people would return to this spot the next day for morning fishing (and would catch a fish!) and to possibly spot a moose in the more remote area (they did not). We arrived back at site right when it started to rain (nice!) and reconnected with the other group. They had been resting and drying out loads of firewood while we were gone. We were going to head back out to do some walleye fishing but decided against it in favor of hanging out near the fire. After some reading, resting, and lively talk we realized that there were 2 golden eagles posted up near our site. We stood and watched them while my buddy was getting some pictures of them on his fancy camera. After they took off we started up on dinner which was some pasta with red sauce and fried spam. This meal, rightly, seemed to be the group favorite although I preferred the bacon and pancakes. After dinner we sat near the fire and laughed and told stories which is always something I love to do. One of my guys brought his homemade blueberry mead which was a great addition to the night. A few of us chatted until 1:00 AM at which point we retired. 
After another good night's rest we made some oatmeal and had a nice last sit around the fire in the morning. One topic of our morning talk was what we were going to name the campsite (we name all the sites we stay at). One running joke this trip was referring to me as the "King" due to it being my bachelor party. This lead very neatly into our chosen campsite name of "The King's Castle". We soon finished our chat and oatmeal, packed up camp, and set off to Little Gabbro for our 199 rod portage out. The paddle over was a fun one. It was a beautiful sunny day and a great day to be outside. We soon got to our portage and hurriedly started it up as we were running about 5 minutes behind on our agreed upon time to meet the outfitter. We made it out with no problem and concluded our trip with some showers and a nice meal at the boathouse. It was a short trip but it was a great one and with such an excellent group of guys. I wouldn't have done my bachelor party any other way!
Days in: 2.5 Rods portaged: 462 Total miles traveled: 14.7 
