BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
September 26 2024
Entry Point 34 - Island River
Number of Permits per Day: 2
Elevation: 1564 feet
Latitude: 47.7912
Longitude: -91.3332
Island River - 34
First BWCA trip - Lake One to North Wilder
Entry Date:
August 26, 2009
Entry Point:
Lake One
Number of Days:
4
Group Size:
3
Woke up to a beautiful morning. Found our food intact, cooked breakfast, broke camp and headed off for the day at around 10:00. We were the only ones on the lake and we didn't see anyone else the rest of the day. We paddled over to the portage to Brewis Lake. Ken carried the canoe on the first portage. He tripped on a rock and fell pretty hard but luckily he didn't hurt either himself or the canoe. The portage was pretty narrow and a bit muddy for a short while but pretty easy. Brewis is pretty small so it didn't take long until we were on the next portage to Harbor Lake. This portage was fairly easy as well with an uphill and then downhill. We single portaged this one and then had lunch before moving on. By this time it was starting to get a little cloudy. Once again it didn't take long to paddle to our next portage to North Wilder. I had read that this portage was difficult due to lots of blockage from blowdown but all the blowdown was cleared. This was the longest portage of the day but was pretty flat. I carried the canoe this time and soon we were at North Wilder. North Wilder was very pretty even though it had lots of blowdown. Right across the lake was a nice campsite and we took it. The campsite even had lots of firewood left from the previous occupant. We set up camp and rested a bit. It was about 2:30 at this time. Around 4 pm we decided to canoe around the lake and explore every arm of the lake. As soon as we got back into our canoe it started to rain, lightly at first and then harder. Even with the rain we enjoyed exploring the lake, which was much larger than we initially thought. We also decided to take a look at tomorrow morning's portage to Wilder Creek. It was actually difficult to find this portage. Once we did, Tim and I walked the portage while Ken waited with the canoe since this was not an easy portage to land. The portage was a bit narrow and had a blowdown tree to cross, but the big problem came at the other end. The creek was very low, and from just the portion we could see there was at least 2 or 3 spots that were too low to float a canoe. We also knew there was a beaver dam somewhere down the creek. After much thought and discussion, we decided not to attempt paddling the creek. We would turn around and head out the way we came. About the time we got back into camp it stopped raining so we cooked dinner and talked around the campfire. Lots of good trees here to hang a bear bag so that wasn't a problem here. It started to clear a little and the moon came out for a while. There was some lightning in the distance. We really didn't know what kind of day the next day would be, but the weather forcast we looked at before we left didn't look good. After we went to bed it started to rain - HARD. 
Horseshoe Lake, Brewis Lake, Harbor Lake, North Wilder Lake
The next morning we got up and kind of took our time getting ready. It was raining - sometimes lightly and sometimes hard. We cooked breakfast (actually Tim did). The rain did pause long enough to take down our tent and pack up. So much for our gear being lighter from eating the food and using fuel - our gear was soaked and we would be carrying water weight. By the time we got back on the lake it started raining again and it rained moderately most of the day as we worked our way back. The portages were very muddy now when they weren't just the day before. We decided to do a two man carry of the canoe right-side-up back through the portages as we thought it would be safer with the muddy trails. This worked out fine. We didn't pause very long until we got back to Horseshoe Lake. The wind was pretty strong all the way back and we stopped at our old campsite on Horseshoe Lake for lunch. During lunch we decided to move on to Lake Three tonight to make the final day's paddle shorter. We continued on and had a little difficulty finding the portage from Horseshoe to Lake Three. The Pow Wow Trail runs along the shoreline near the portage and we were fooled twice where the trail met the water before we found the real portage. Once on Lake Three the first couple campsites were occupied but then we found an open site. Although this site was pretty close to two other sites, we never heard a peep from either site and both of the other sites were out of sight. We set up camp, found a place to hang our bear bag (easy here) and went off to search for firewood (difficult here). This was a beautiful site and we saw an eagle fly around directly across from our camp. We started a fire and the rain then tapered off and then stopped. We really enjoyed this site and were glad we continued to this site. Around the campfire we heard a sound, which turned out to be what we think was a mink. What a nice finish to what was a stormy, wet, cold day. 
North Wilder Lake, Brewis Lake, Harbor Lake, Horseshoe Lake, Three, Lake
We woke up on a cloudy, but mostly dry day. We had a little rain but not much. What did concern us was the strong wind. It was obvious we were going to be crossing Lake Three (and everything else for that matter) with a strong headwind. We broke camp and loaded our canoe (strapping everything to the canoe this time) and headed back. As we were paddling across Lake Three we were greeted with the sight of an eagle. Unfortunately, we couldn't stop to look as any pause in paddling would push us back. We only got brief rests behind a couple islands but the paddling was constant and hard. We were actually looking forward to the portage to get a short break from paddling. Again, the numbered lakes were a little difficult to navigate and it took us a few minutes to find the portage to Lake One. A little over 3 hours after we started we were back to our car, a little tired but happy. 
Three, Lake