BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
July 09 2025
Entry Point 32 - South Kawishiwi River
South Kawishiwi River 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 140-rod portage to the river.
Number of Permits per Day: 2
Elevation: 1201 feet
Latitude: 47.8419
Longitude: -91.6632
South Kawishiwi River - 32
Number of Permits per Day: 2
Elevation: 1201 feet
Latitude: 47.8419
Longitude: -91.6632
South Kawishiwi River - 32
Lake One to Insula
by ILikePike
Trip Report
Entry Date:
June 16, 2007
Entry Point:
Lake One
Number of Days:
8
Group Size:
6
Trip Introduction:
This is my second trip to BWCA and longest trip. The other people have gone for around 20 years or more. We just found out that insula got bass in it so we decided to go there this year for our annual trip. When the other guys went there earlier there were no bass.
Day 2 of 8
August 30, 2015 – Day 4 of 9. We awoke early at 6:30 or so when the sun came up and we decided, over coffee and eggs to spend most of day four fishing the deeper sections of Iron Lake. As a mental note that wasn’t in my journal, it is amazing how good instant coffee made with lake water tastes first thing in the morning on day four. Not so much on day one, but after four days and the view we had, instant taste pretty good that day. We set out after breakfast with high hopes of larger fish, the success was limited to a couple of medium sized walleyes that we decided would be that night’s supper. The wind picked up and made open water fishing more difficult, so we headed back for lunch and then back to Elizabeth’s favorite south cove where the “most fish” differential grew larger. Just to add context to the fish she was catching, these were not little rock bass or perch. She was catching 4-6 pound walleyes in 12-15 feet of water on the last second purchase, baby bass rubber minnows. These baby bass minnow have become so infamous, that every gift giving opportunity since has included a pack of them. I think she has nearly a life time supply by now. After many hours of being out fished, my back thought it may be nice to return to camp and explore the island we were camped on. We walked the south shore and followed it around, then worked our way inland a bit as we continued around the island. The beauty of the shaded, seemly untouched forest can never be adequately described. Elizabeth spent some time getting some nice pictures and unique close-ups and as I look back on those pictures, as beautiful as they are, they just can’t capture the overall wonder the back woods has to offer. We returned to camp after a couple of hours of exploring and had a nice meal as we watched the sunset. We were fortunate that evening to have a cloudless sky and there was no sign of the moon yet. This would be a perfect night for star gazing. Elizabeth has always been fascinated by the night sky, stars, planets and space in general. When the sun had completely set, and darkness overtook the lake, we laid out on the southern rock landing and just looked up in amazement. With the lack of nearly any light pollution, the view was amazing. We laid there and just took it all in for an hour, having a running total of passing satellites vs. the number of falling stars. The view was so nice, I could have easily stayed there until sleep set in, but I knew that my back would hate me in the morning, so the now usual cards in the tent and then sleep was in order. Elizabeth's eye for the unusual 
Who needs grass... 
The old guy with a bum knee makes it to the top of the island. 
Beautiful camp site sunset. I love sunsets, it is just a reminder of how beautiful the day was. 
Who needs grass... The old guy with a bum knee makes it to the top of the island. Beautiful camp site sunset. I love sunsets, it is just a reminder of how beautiful the day was.
Day 5 of 8
Sunday, June 17, 2007- A cloudy morning with some wind. We saw a group of canoes pass our site. My dad and i went fishing around an island and noticed that the campsite we wanted was open. It is west of the narrows and north of Williamson Island. As we were at that campsite it started to rain so we left a pack there hoping noone would take it. When we were paddling back it started to thunder and lightning. We decided to move camp during the storm so we wouldnt lose the site. We got the campsite(i thought 5 star) and finially got fishing at 8:00pm when it stopped. We got a few SB and a pike. 
Day 8 of 8
Monday, June 18, 2007- I heard rain on the tent when i woke up. We fished in the rain and caught around 12 of Walleye(Dub Ya) by the east side of the peninsula to the west of our campsite. We didnt do so well at night in the same spot. 
Day 9 of 8
Tuesday, June 19, 2007- Rain and wind was the story of today. Winds were really high today so we went to fish in the bay by the Kiana portage. We did okay and we got a 17inch SB(my dad) and 22 pike(me) on a double whammy by the beaver house. 
Day 11 of 8
Wednesday, June 20, 2007- Wind was the story today with some rain during the night. 2 people had to leave today back to the EP. We werent sure if they would make it because they left around 9. It took us 8 hours on one day but they were against the wind the whole time after insula. We caught three fish during the day time.Only one big SB 17in (my biggest ever) We had to fish around camp because the high winds. But since fishing wasnt great on insula we decided to check out Cache Lake. It has dark water and we didnt catch a fish but we got about 100 feet from a bull moose and it was the first moose i have ever seen and it was huge! The wind was pounding the north shore so while we were fishing before dark we decide to troll the north shore before we got to our fishing spot. I caught a 17in Dub Ya(my biggest ever) and 14. We got to the spot where we wanted to and my dad caught a small SB. We troll the rest of the night where i got the first 2 fish and got a total of 9 fish. Good size with 16 Sb, and two 17 Dub Ya. 
Day 12 of 8
Thursday, June 21, 2007- Today since it was the first calm fishing day we went to the same spot as the night before. We did pretty good i caught 17in SB(my biggest ever), and 26in pike(my biggest FISH ever). It rained a little but not much. Tonight we went to the same spot and trolled and did ok. i got a 19in Dub Ya(my biggest ever and no picture because I ran out of them). Today was my best day of fishing not quantity but quality. Today was also the first day that we could have a full day of fishing because the weather was good. 
Day 14 of 8
Friday, June 22, 2007- We decided that we didnt want to go 15 miles on our last day because we could have bad weather like the other guys so we wanted to go to hudson. It was sunny and a little wind.We left our 5 star camp around 9:30 we took a secret portage by the west side of the lake and we thought it would cut time but it didnt it still took 2 hours to get to the insula-hudson portage. we decided to move on to lake four to camp. we got there around 1:30 and set up camp. We got out fishing around 4 by the NE long bay of the lake by the fire lake portage and brought back Dub Ya and a bass which was only our 3rd fish meal of the trip. The first day without rain.
Day 16 of 8
Saturday, June 23, 2007- We left camp a little before ten and thought we'd be out by 1. We got through the portages fast but they sure were crowded. We got to the EP around 1 and packed up. A successful trip with no major injuries, decent fishing, and poor weather. i got around 50 fish in the trip.
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