BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
October 22 2026
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!
Lake 1 Fall 2026
Entry Date:
September 28, 2026
Entry Point:
Lake One
Number of Days:
5
Group Size:
2
After multiple setbacks and EP changes due to the 2026 Fires I reluctantly decided on EP 30 as a viable spot. I usually like to be more remote up in Crooked Lake area but it was closed. I had heard that Lake One was a nice route but busy, but figured in the late season it shouldn’t be so bad. We set out to a bright sunny day with a storm forecasted to roll in around 4pm. Lake One was the first issue the Map is missing a lot of small islands on this lake resulting in us ending up in the bottom corner instead of the portage. I have never used a GPS in the BWCA but this may be the area for it. With water levels low there were a lot of islands that were no longer islands with land bridges connecting them to the main land making things even more confusing. Anyway we got through the two small portages and on our way across Lake Two. I had a 1st timer with me and we got a bit of a late start so had no huge expectations on distance. Once we got into Lake Two I already started to notice every campsite we passed was occupied. Not a problem as we planned on hitting at least Lake Three for the day. Again more islands turned peninsulas in this lake. We ended up stopping for the day at the end of Lake Three just before going up and around for the portage along the Kawishiwi River. It wasn’t the greatest of sites (1498) but with the storm coming it worked. We got the tent up, tarp up and settled in for the night. 
It started raining during the night and the wind picked up from the south, so we hunkered down for the entire day under the tarp playing cards and drinking more coffee than we should have but it kept us warm and dry. Not really much else to report on this day. 
Up early to watch the sunrise from the rocky point out from the campsite which was nice but very exposed as the wind was picking up. Chilly mornings but once the sun came up it was quite enjoyable, and no skeeters. We had planned to go further in towards Insulia Lake but with losing a whole day to rain decided to spend the day fishing instead of paddling. This part of Lake Three was shallow and muddy on the bottom. We hooked a handful of small Northerns only one of which was worth keeping and were about to call it a day when Kenny hooked a beefy Bass, measured in about 18” but had some girth on her. We ate good this night. 
Up early again watching the sun but the wind has shifted to the W and is significantly stronger and colder than the day before. The decision was made to start heading back and find a more desirable campsite. I admit I checked the forecast and it was calling for stronger W to NW winds for the next few days and all of our paddling would be in that direction. So we packed up and headed off. As soon as we rounded the corner from the point the waves were hitting hard and almost into the boat. After what felt like an hour we made I up to some shelter and cut south along the coast behind a series of islands in the W part of Lake Three. Checked out a site on the bluff but it was directly in the wind and not a great site anyway so we moved along. And as expected every site we came to was occupied except one. The one thats not listed on the BWCA maps but it is listed on my MacKenzie. Very nice site other than it too was directly in the path of the wind which was gusting quite well. So we set up camp, we ended up having to put large rocks on the tent stakes to keep them in the ground as the wind was so strong it was pulling them out. Thankfully we were able to have a fire once the wind died down in the evening which was a moral booster as we had only had one the first night as the other nights were too windy to risk it. No luck fishing in this area, very shallow in spots. I decided to do some carving on a hunk of Cedar and made my son a small canoe with a couple paddles since he wasn’t able to make the trip this year. 
Up to beautiful sunny skies and no real wind to speak of….yet. It was a chilly morning but nothing some coffee cant fix. Then the wind picked up again. Now I am used to the wind out on the lakes and am fully aware it picks up during the day and drops off at night but this was days and days of wind, cold wind at that. So we decided to pack up again and head over to Lake One for our last couple days. Find a site sheltered from the NW wind and just enjoy that area for a bit. Another arduous paddle into the waves we hit the portages and passed several other groups of people on the way out. This was the first week of October so I was somewhat shocked by this. We got into Lake One and figured we would head up to the N side. I can not say how many people we saw, it was mind boggling. Every single campsite we passed was occupied with 20 plus canoes out on the water. SO needless to say we decided to cut the trip short vs going back through the portages into Lake Two to maybe find a campsite. I did not realize how many people head out on those early weekends of self issue permits. Lesson learned. It was possible the worst trip I have had to the BWCA in the 30 years I have been going but that being said it was still better than not being there.