BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
July 15 2025
Entry Point 27 - Snowbank Lake
Number of Permits per Day: 8
Elevation: 1191 feet
Latitude: 47.9716
Longitude: -91.4326
Snowbank Lake - 27
Finding Solitude
Entry Date:
July 13, 2024
Entry Point:
Snowbank Lake
Number of Days:
16
Group Size:
2
Picked up our permit at Frost River and loaded up the RAV. On our way to Ely! We had an uneventful drive to Snowbank Outfitters, got checked in, and headed back into town to have dinner and wander around. Good meal at Insula, then over to Piragis where we found Big Sky cozies for rehydrating meals- way better than the silver Hawk Vittles one I've been using. Also some Alpine Aire meals that looked interesting. Had to stop at Zups and browse around....got some almond butter powder and these great mexican mango popsicles that tasted like the best dreamsicles in the world. Early to bed in the motel at Snowbank, we want to be on the water early. There's no AC in the motel, but a good fan made sleeping possible.
On to Ensign..the portage wouldn't have been bad if it hadn't been SO hot. Once on the water, the wind began to pick up. First 2 sites full, but on the north side of the lake we found one open. There isn't much of a view from the kitchen, but lots of room for tents, a nice shady spot to set up a rainfly, and no real fly problem. Cool trail up the hill to a picked over blueberry field witha stone bench hidden in the long grass.
Set up camp, had some snacks and "iced" coffee, then sat in the shade. Still pretty hot but there's a breeze and shade so life is good. There's a big group of sumac bushes that are flowering and boy are the bees happy! Discovered that left my hairbrush in the car....oh well.
~Snowbank Lake, Boot Lake, Ensign Lake
Took the campsite on the northeast end of Vera. Jesse has decided that he really enjoys shorter days with time to explore an area, and I'm fine with that. Got a decent rain shelter set up while it sprinkled so all our gear was protected before the thunderstorms started. Saw a sad group paddling down the lake as it poured buckets. We didn't have the tent up yet, and that ended up being a blessing.
Once the rain kinda quit I went and looked at the 3 nice flat tent pads in camp and......they were all lakes. I scouted around the edges of camp and just down the shore was a beautiful spot. Tucked into the trees, elevated, dry, shady. You have to follow the stepping stones along the shore. Set up there before the rain got going again.
Finally cleared up and was a gorgeous evening. Cut and split some wood, had cajun smack chicken and rice. Last photo is of one of the tent pads in the mud.
~Ensign Lake, Vera Lake
Came back to camp and hung the shower.....boy did that feel good. Saw 2 loons running across the water in short spurts. When I looked through my binoculars, the one in front had a biggish fish in it's beak. I'd love to know that story!
Rained on and off during the afternoon, but got to have another fire, chili and quesadillas. 
~Vera Lake
~Vera Lake, Knife Lake
We are on the southeast end of the lake. It's a lovely grove of birches, unique. One really nice tent pad, decent kitchen and spot for the rain fly. Shady and protected from the wind to some extent. We didn't look at the site across the lake but it looks like full sun, very few trees. Only strikes against this one are access and the latrine. At first you'd think the only way in is up the rock face, but there is a better access with canoe garage to the right, in a cedar grove. And, the latrine is pretty close to camp, and quite full.
Today is sunny and windy with some smoke haze from the western fires along the horizon. We have a bunch of firewood cut, and then had afternoon coffee with salami whips, apricots, triscuits and cheese. Kept the fire going until sunset, and then the wings of doom descended and we went to bed.
~Knife Lake, South Arm Knife Lake, Bonnie Lake, Spoon Lake
Portaged into a little unnamed lake at the east end of Spoon- so pretty. One shore burned awhile back, the other didn't. Tried to find the next portage but there was a cascade of beaver dams in that bay so we decided to go blueberry picking on the burned hillside instead. Very productive- got a couple cups . Made us happy, since all the other bushes we've seen were bare- no green berries even.
Back on Spoon we went over to the full sun campsite, changed into our swimsuits, and swam and lay on the rocks. Not a site that gets much use, I think. The grass is getting tall and blueberries are colonizing the tent pad. Lots of short young pines....in another 30 years it will be gorgeous. Came back to camp feeling refreshed.
The FS paddled into camp to check our permit and latrine- they didn't mention our barrel. Latrine is full, so they went across the lake to set up camp and then came back to move it. Took them an hour or so and we got to christen a brand new latrine. Lots of smoke haze tonight.
~Spoon Lake
Showered AND changed clothes......what a luxury! Storms are closer and there's some wind now, feels nice after the heat earlier.
Just past mid day the storms finally found us. Rained pretty hard for awhile, but it's quit now and the camp is sunny while thunder rumbles south of us again. Sitting in the sun watching ripples on the water. Clothes got washed. Climbed the hill behind camp after dinner to a beautiful forest of red pines.
1 week in. The days revolve around the weather, the sunrise and set, meals, the work of travel and setting up camp, firewood. Such peace. 
~Spoon Lake, Pickle Lake, Kekekabic Lake
We went out for a day paddle on Kekekabic- such a huge lake with twisty little bays, I really liked it. There are lots of cliffs and mounds of tall hills, and the water is amazingly clear. Took the short portage into Kek Lake. It's a gorgeous little gem. Took a video in the center of the lake while Jesse paddles us in a slow circle. We found a rocky area of shoreline to eat lunch- smoked sausage, olives, apricots, nuts. So many big white pines on Kek Lake that made it through the blowdown in the shelter of these hills. We've seen a few canoes off in the distance today, and this morning I heard someone splitting wood, but that's it.
Once back in camp Jesse took water, GPS and raingear and went to explore the island further. He returned with tales of vast mossy greenness, many mosquitos, and lots of tangled blowdown. We stayed up with the fire until almost dark, but it clouded over and we headed for the tent. 
~Kekekabic Lake, Kek Lake
It's been raining since Gerund Lake, finally stopped for now. Got a dry camp set up and had some lunch. Never really warmed up, but no more rain and a little sun. We cut a bunch of wood, had chili and quesadillas and chocolate pudding. Now just enjoying the fire. The big pine in camp was filled with little birds in the late afternoon- ovenbird, chickadees, back and white warbler, blackburnian warbler, hummingbird, white throated sparrow, black throated green warbler. Found a deserted robin's nest.
No one seems to come down this bay. 
~Kekekabic Lake, Strup Lake, Wisini Lake, Ahmakose Lake, Gerund Lake, Fraser Lake 
Once back on Fraser, we collected wood and putzed along the shore. We found the outflow of a creek that drains a tiny pond back in the hills above the lake. Then we went back to camp.
I sat in camp and watched Jesse figure out how to cut wood solo, and understand why I gravitate towards wrist sized pieces. He's slowly acquiring the skills he'll need to solo some day.
We did see one group on the Fraser/Shepo portage, which is flat short and wide, that commented that this would be the hardest portage we did all day. Funny guys! They were coming from the direction of Cap/Roe/Boulder. 
~Fraser Lake, Shepo Lake, Sagus Lake
[paragraph break] Breakfast was in the dining hall at 7:00. Thick slabs of french toast, orange juice and coffee would fuel us well into the day. 
Staff member Stefan rode with us up to Seagull and saw us off before taking our vehicle back to Tusc. Seagull was calm and we got a good start and made the west end before the breeze kicked up. A quick portage through Rog Lake put us into Alpine. I would have liked to have seen this gem of a lake before the fire. We took lunch on the east end of Jasper by the rapids. 
At the west end of Jasper we had some trouble locating the portage to Kingfisher until we saw a young couple coming down the trail. We chatted briefly and they said that there were very few people on Ogish. Aside from a few distant views of people on Seagull, they would be the only people we would see this first day. We arrived at Ogish and paddled through the narrows before we started looking for campsites. The site at the narrows looked nice but we didn't like the idea of everyone passing by us so close for the next two days. We eventually settled on the far west island site, #783. It sat up high on a rock outcropping,had decent tent pads and was catching a nice breeze. With camp set, we made our tortilla pizzas and relaxed. A short but intense storm blew through right at bedtime. 
[paragraph break] We awoke to a nice day that we spent fishing around the west end of Ogish. A small stringer of walleyes and smallmouth were invited to supper and cousin Eric caught the biggest fish of his life, a 36 inch northern. 440%2Ejpg&name=TripReport">
We had originally planned to head to Ester, but instead we decided to head for the South Arm to spend the next couple of days.[paragraph break] Camp was broke the next morning and we traveled through Annie, Jenny and Eddy on our way to South Arm. On the way through the Annie to Jenny portage, we ran into a Boy Scout group, the first people we met since the first's day couple. The portage into the South Arm drops down a steep path as it parallels Eddy Falls. We would check out the falls on our way back through. The South Arm was crowded and all of the sites that I had researched were full. We settled on site #1436 in a back bay to the north side. It stuck out on a small point just enough to catch a breeze, had nice tent pads and a resident Eagle. It also looked much quieter than the rest of the South Arm. 
203127.JPG" align="left" > 
[paragraph break] Most of the crew swam and fished the next days while lilcowdoc and I took a day trip up through Amoeber and Topaz to Cherry. We had lunch at a favorite site of mine at the narrows that I wanted to show her. We returned for a quiet evening of fishing and relaxing. 
" > 
[paragraph break] The next day we left the South Arm and headed back towards Ogish. On the way we checked out Eddy Falls. 
Once back at Ogish, we headed out the south side enroute to Mueller and Agamok. We stopped where the Kekekabic Trail crosses the portage and went east on the trail to check out Mueller Falls. We enjoyed lunch on a small rock island at the base of the Falls. 
="left" > 
090708%2D204155%2Ejpg&name=TripReport">
AGAMOK WAS A Strange lake in a wide valley. Mr. Beymer was right about the sHALLOW ROCKY AREA AT THE mid-lake narrows. 
From Agamok, the portage to Gabi was easy and the slight breeze did not have the big lake whipped up too bad. Lots of Gabi was burned, but the south end where we were was spared. I took a picture of "the line" where the fire stopped. I thought it strange to see black stumps so close to untouched, green
trees....like you drew a line. rt">
A quick trip through Rattle with some Boy Scouts had us looking at a neat little set of rapids by the portage to Little Sag. Lots of fire damage was all around. 
[paragraph break] A small tailwind pushed us east down Little Sag to a small island campsite, #534. We all swam after the long day and relaxed after a spaghetti supper. Much of the lake's north shore was burned, but the islands and the south shore are fine. This site has some beautiful tent pads that sit on small cliffs and overlook the water and it has a rock bench back by the trees that the boys sat on and talked. The cooking area is on a big, bare rock pad way down by the water and appears somewhat out of place. We studied the stars that night after a nice sunset. 
[paragraph break] Once again we awoke to a nice day, our last one. We left the east end of Little Sag on a beautiful portage trail that travels alongside a set of rapids and small falls. 
My camera gave out at this time and I have not retrieved the pictures I took with my cousins camera. I will have to update. We passed through Mora and into Crooked where we had a quick lunch at an island site that lilcowdoc had been to in May. The portage into Crooked was steep and rocky at the start as was the portage out. A stiff tailwind blew us quickly down beautiful Tuscarora Lake to the east end where the dreaded, much anticipated portage to Missing Link waited for us. We snacked and hydrated as a few groups came down the hill and then we took a deep breath and off we went. We used the "portage and a half" technique and did the 400 some rodder in just under an hour. A quick dip in Missing Link refreshed us for that quick paddle and another tough, but scenic portage into Round Lake. The stiff south wind blew us quickly to the landing on the north shore at Tuscarora Lodge.[paragraph break] After the cleanup phase, we grabbed some beer and pops and sat on the dock and enjoyed the south wind that kept the skeeters and black flies at bay. We had made plans to meet fellow BWCA.com member Kiporby and his daughter Lauren for supper at the Trail Center. I am glad he showed up early because the boys were getting very hungry. We all enjoyed a great evening at the TC and traded trip stories. [paragraph break] A fairly strong storm blew through the Tuscarora Lodge that night. It made me think that all in all, we had great weather for the trip. We got up early to leave and say goodbye to lilcowdoc. Somewhere near the TC, the boys fell back asleep and my cousin and I were the only two to see the black bear scoot across the road. We stopped for breakfast at Two Harbors and headed down 61 for D<cfm?fuseaction=photos.display&img=COWDOC%2D170908%2D201110%2EJPG&name=TripReportseaction=photos.display&img=COWDOC%2D17%3C%2FA%3E0908%2D201110%2EJPG&name=TripReport">">/?fuseaction=photos.display&img=A%3EDOC%2D17%3C%2FA%3E0908%2D201110%2EJPG&name=TripReport">am?fuseaction=photos.display&img=A%3E%3EDOC%2D17%3C%2FA%3E0908%2D201110%2EJPG&name=TripReport">>x.cfm?fuseaction=photos.display&img=A%3E%3EDOC%2D17%3C%2FA%3E0908%2D201110%2EJPG&name=TripReport">>uluindex.cfm?fuseaction=photos.display&img=A%3E%3EDOC%2D17%3C%2FA%3E0908%2D201110%2EJPG&name=TripReport">th. ef="index.cfm?fuseaction=photos.display&img=A%3E%3EDOC%2D17%3C%2FA%3E0908%2D201110%2EJPG&name=TripReport">We w" href="index.cfm?fuseaction=photos.display&img=A%3E%3EDOC%2D17%3C%2FA%3E0908%2D201110%2EJPG&name=TripReport">ill be back.
="_blank" href="index.cfm?fuseaction=photos.display&img=A%3E%3EDOC%2D17%3C%2FA%3E0908%2D201110%2EJPG&name=TripReport">pReport">
arget="_blank" href="index.cfm?fuseaction=photos.display&img=cowdoc%2D170908%2D200541%dex.cfm?fuseaction=photos.display&img=COWDOC%2D170908%2D200541%2EJPG&name=TripReportm?fuseaction=photos.display&img=COWDOC%2D170908%3C%2FA%3E%2D200541%2EJPG&name=TripReaction=photos.display&img=COWDOC%2D%3C%2FA%3E170908%3C%2FA%3E%2D200541%2EJPG&name=TripReport">port">">2Ejpg&name=TripReport">" > 
> 
The channel into Snatch is just a cool lily filled winding path through the floating bog. Snatch has a tiny island at one end, with a single pine tree on it. Then headed over to the trail into Reflection Lake- had to wade a small creek and lift over a beaver dam, but really easy access. Reflection was beautiful, tall rock faces and glacial erratics in the southern end near the creek. It is slowly filling in and one day will be a beaver meadow. Saw what could have been a winding path through the bog that might have led to Sedative, but it was pretty narrow for the Quetico so we ate lunch, collected some wood, and headed home.
Sat in the breezy shade drinking coffee, watching all the groups moving around the lake- some headed towards Snowbank, some looking for camps. The lake is filling up, although the really crappy site next door is last to be claimed. Got super windy this afternoon- lots of whitecaps on the water.
The last photo is of 2 kinds of wilderness woodcraft.....one is more desirable than the other LOL
~Ima Lake, Snatch Lake, Reflection Lake
Our goal today is to find Solitude on this busy lake! Had to portage the canoe over to the red pine woods west of camp to find a quieter area to launch from- lots of jagged rocks in the waves right at camp. Followed the shore of the bay until we found the remnants of the old portage trail into Solitude. We were able to bushwhack fairly easily into Solitude- the old trail is faintly visible. It's starting to get harder to follow in a few spots where trees have fallen over the old trail and new trails have sprung up. Would be hard to get the Quetico through, but something shorter and slimmer like my Magic would be quite doable.
Came back to Ima and paddled over to Alworth, which was pretty but also busy. The first campsite on Alworth is directly at the end of the portage trail- not optimal. Very pretty portage. We wanted to find out if you could paddle to Muzzle. Both our maps show a campsite there, and it's not near a hiking trail, so......the short answer is probably not. We got a little ways past where the hiking trail crosses the creek on a beaver dam and turned around. The beavers are very busy along that stretch....a portage would be easier than the constant in and out. PP says- disconnected location. Back into Ima, ate our lunch on a rocky point on the calm side of the lake. Discovered that pickles wrapped on Korean jerky are delicious!
Back in camp, and the wind is really fierce. Jesse went exploring behind camp and found a huge garbage dump.....tents, bags full of crushed beer cans and other garbage, stove pipe sections, a snow shovel, plastic cups, plates, etc, and a 50 gallon orange barrel. He took pics and dropped a pin on his map and I'll call the FS when we get out.
Trips always feel too short at this point. I miss Ole and Amelia, and good food and a soft bed, but I also never want to leave the woods. 
~Ima Lake, Solitude Lake, Alworth Lake
So hot and windy! Feels like storms coming. The heat was killing me, and the afternoon wind on Snowbank seemed like a bad idea, so we took the first site on Disappointment. It's just an okay site, maybe 2 stars. Might have been better if it hadn't been infested by what we are calling "macaroni bandits". There is dry macaroni around the firepit, macaroni in the water at the landing, tortillas in a bush, plastic bags, underwear in a small tree, lots of leaves in the latrine, and a big pile of human poop on a rock that used to be a nice overlook- and they made a fire on the rocks near camp and didn't even drown it. It was out, but still ashed over.
Very little shade- most trees near camp have been snapped off about 20 feet up. Must have been a heck of a storm. We spent the day getting in and out of the water, using our clothes to cool us as they dried. Camp is set up, but haven't unpacked our sleeping bags- still very hot at night.
~Ima Lake, Jordan Lake, Cattyman Lake, Adventure Lake, Jitterbug Lake, Ahsub Lake, Disappointment Lake
We took the longer portage into Snowbank, which was probably a mistake since it meant we had to cross more open water on Snowbank. This was NOT fun. Big rollers, with minimal waves actually getting in the canoe but still.....butt clenching. Once we got past the bay by the canoe landing it was WAY better. Still work, but not scary. Got back to the outfitters around 1030, got showered and packed up the car. Headed towards Ely but immediately realized it was Blueberry Festival, so headed towards Hwy 61 and swung by the Trestle Inn for a couple Locomotives and fries.
And then it's over....bittersweet.
~Disappointment Lake, Snowbank Lake