BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
April 19 2024
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!
Gabbro 2009--Windy, Windier and Winter
Entry Date:
May 14, 2009
Entry Point:
Little Gabbro Lake
Exit Point:
Little Gabbro Lake (33)
Number of Days:
5
Group Size:
7
Thursday morning was an omen of things to come. Although it had been 72 degrees when we arrived in Ely on Wednesday, it had snowed overnight and was in the low 30's when made it to our entry point around 9:00 a.m. Not exactly what we were hoping for, but we hit the water and headed for site 1710--the same site we stayed at last year. Thankfully the winds weren't too bad in the morning and we thought things might be looking up when we saw the site was vacant. Once we got ashore, however, we discovered the site had been trashed--literally. The previous group had left a pile of garbage in the fire grate along with some huge partially burnt logs, and I mean logs. And as we walked around the camp we also found a broken i-pod boom box, a broken fishing rod and various metal cans strewn around. The kicker was when we discovered that they had left their porno magazines by the latrine. We spent 10-15 minutes picking the place up and set up camp.
As we were setting up camp the winds picked up and limited our fishing options so we fished in the northern most bay and caught some nice 13" crappies and eating size walleyes. After dinner, we fished from camp with dead ciscoes and slip bobbers and caught some nice sized northerns, with a few around 32". 
My Friday started around 3:30 a.m. I woke up thinking my clothes smelled awfully smokey from the fire the night before. As I rolled over in my sleeping bag I saw some flickering lights outside the tent and was baffled. Had one of the guys gotten up and started a fire in the middle of the night? I jumped out of the tent to find a fire outside the fire grate. Apparently one of the logs that the previous group had left near the grate was too close to our fire and had been smoldering inside. When the winds picked up in the overnight hours they stoked the embers in the hollow core of the log and flames were shooting out the end, and that was enough to send me into panic mode. I start rummaging through camp trying to find a pot to fill with water and douse the fire. All the while I'm in my stocking feet and nearly slip on the wet rocks into the lake on two or three occasions. After 6 or 7 gallons of water, the fire was out, and I went back to bed. The only problem was I kept having dreams of our entire campsite going up in flames and the USFS charging me with starting a forest fire. Not the most relaxing thought in the world. Later that morning, when I told the group what had happened, they were freaked as well as relieved because they thought it was a bear they heard tearing our camp apart. Regardless, that served as a glaring reminder that we needed to go out of our way to make sure every fire was thoroughly extinguished before leaving camp or going to bed.
As for fishing, Friday was okay. The winds had to be blowing at a steady 15 mph from the east and again this limited our fishing options. But Buzz17 and I found a nice honey hole on the south side of the lake out of the wind and landed some eating size walleye and some really nice perch.
After dinner it began to rain and rain and rain and get colder and colder. Despite the rain we still threw out the ciscoes and slip bobbers and once again landed a handful of northerns in the 33"-34" range. 
It got cold Friday night--only an official low of 30 degrees but it seemed a lot colder than that and much to my dismay, we woke with at least a 1/2" of snow on the ground Saturday morning and more wind (imagine that!). I've been up there in May with some snow flurries, but NEVER with measurable snow on the ground, and I have a new found appreciation for those who go winter camping. In the back of my mind I was wondering if we should pull up camp and head back to Ely, but at the same time I realized I didn't want to pack up camp and paddle back to the entry point in those conditions.
While none of the guys were thrilled with the weather, we somehow managed to make the best of it. And since we'd come up to go fishing, we all bundled up and headed out, sitting in snow showers until 2:00 p.m. or so. Thankfully, we caught fish--more walleye, crappie and perch, though I honestly don't ever remember my hands being so cold while fishing, even ice fishing. It was nothing short of brutal.
Thankfully around 2:00 p.m. the snow showers stopped and the sun came out for a while. Hard to believe, but we were ecstatic when the temps climbed into the low 40's. And like the previous two days, we threw out more ciscoes on slip bobbers and we caught more large northerns. The largest that night was a 36" hog. 
Sunday was by far the best day--at least it was sunny and warmer. But the winds once again picked up and limited where we could fish, and the fishing was the slowest it had been the whole time we were there. Thankfully, we did manage to catch enough for dinner, and while we were getting dinner ready, we fell back on the ciscoes and slip bobbers one more time. The action was slower, but I managed to land another 34" northern. 
Time to pack up and head back to reality. But once again the winds were howling. They had to be in the 15-20 mph range with gusts near 25 mph. Paddling across Gabbro I had visions of the opening scenes of Hawaii 5-0 in my mind with the way the waves were crashing over the bow of the canoe. Thank God for Gore-Tex.
Of the eleven trips I've done in the BWCA this was by far the most challenging. I've done a trip in May for the past four years and each year it only seems to get colder and windier. So next year, I'm shooting for the second week of June. I know the weather in June can be almost as bad (it was on my first trip in June 2000), but I just can't seem to beat the odds and get decent weather up there in May. I think one of the guys summarized our trip quite well when he said, "It's not a vacation, it's an adventure." Nothing wrong with that, but I'd rather have just a little more vacation and little less adventure for a change. Hope you enjoyed reading this or at least found it helpful. If you have questions or would like additional details, feel free to e-mail me.