BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
April 27 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!
A Short Trip on Crab Lake
Entry Date:
July 13, 2008
Entry Point:
Crab Lake and Cummings from Burntside Lake
Number of Days:
4
Group Size:
3
When we woke up in VN's bunk house early on Sunday, the wind was rattling the windows. We stepped outside to temps in the mid 40's, rainy, and windy, not really what we were expecting in mid-July. The folks at the outfitters were as groggy as we were and no one seemed real certain about how we were going to get across Burntside in the wind and rain, (at least, I wasn't).
One really hairy boat ride later, we were standing alongside slow moving Crab Creek, lined by lilypads and tall grasses and plenty o' mud. Still cold, still windy, we started paddling. This is a trip that should take 2 hours in high water, but it was low water and we had a very heavily laden canoe. It took us 3-1/2 hours. We were noobs and we kept debating the route and we crossed at least 10 beaver dams and several other obstacles and one short portage. For me, it was The Real Thing, wilderness adventure-wise. Lotsa heave-ho-ing the boat, paddling in lilypad-clogged swamps that slowed us down, and beaver dam after beaver dam. My wife was stalwart, though stoic, my son was unstoppable, and I was jus' flat lovin' it. 
Anyone familiar with this area knows we were barely a stone's throw from civilization, but it felt as wild as anyplace I had ever been on the continent. We pressed on and, eventually, we reached Crab Lake. where the wind got stonger as we got weaker. We started hunting for one of the campsites along this lake. There were maybe 5 sites on this 1 mi.x 2 mi. lake, only two were ever occupied besides the one we chose and none were in sight of the other. We got off the lake around Noon. We had planned to press further into the wilderness, but we were spent and this site looked just fine. So there we set up and there we stayed.
We built a fire, set up a tarp, and tried to get warm and dry. That involved a lot of chopping and sawing and so forth. Dark does not arrive until 11 pm so we had lots of time to cook dinner each night. The first night, I made "Campfire Pizza" in the Dutch Oven (yes, we lugged a cast iron 10" DO into the wild). The pizza was, no kidding, delicious. Cooked the crust up-side down with saute'ed vegs and crisp Pancetta ham and cheese sprinkled on top. Sometimes, Life is good, like the T-shirt says.
After a chilly night, Monday dawned warmer and dry. We took our time making breakfast. The deal I made with my wife was that we would base-camp and not pull up stakes everyday, so we set forth on a daytrip, looking for moose. No such luck, but my son started fishing and he just rocked it. Lots of Smallies and Largemouths and various sunfish, mostly over 8". Fishing is not really our thing. If we had known what we were doing, I think we would have caught much larger ones (I hooked into a big 'un but it got away, there's a surprise). My son caught enough 10-inchers for dinner, which he fileted and we deep-fried in the DO with cornmeal breading and cous-cous. Not bad, this whole fishing/eating/camping thing. 
Every evening brought brief showers and beautiful sunsets. The showers led to rainbows and clouds that only made the sunsets nicer. 
Every day we saw and heard loons on the lake (and not much else). After midnight, we heard wolves, baying at the nearly full moon.
Rain blew through from time to time. It was a little cloudly, but not so cloudy that I couldn't manage to get a four-star sunburn. The bugs were determined, but not really much worse than Northern Va, except that the warming weather brought out biting flies that were worse than the skeeters and not really that impressed by DEET.
We took another short day trip to Lunetta Lake, which was not that scenic but, still, we enjoyed collecting photos of the flowers along the way (hey, if you don't see a moose, you have to go with what you do see.) 
We cooked and ate and cooked and ate, not wanting to carry out all the food we had lugged in. DO Biscuits with chipped beef for breakfast. Trader Joe's boil-in-a bag Indian fare with dried chicken. Apples and cheese and sausage snacks rounded things out. My son had home-dehydrated fresh food for the trip which came out pretty tasty.
Another night of brief thunderstorms and awesome skies. 
After four days and three nights, we decided to head back because the drive home was long and tough. It was a short paddle and then a long hard portage back to where the tow boat picked us up, but we made it back to Ely, where we drank beer, ate food we didn't have to cook or clean up after, and loaded up on souvenirs.
The BWCA is an awesome place. Even my wife, who was not crazy about this trip at first,loved it. I wish we lived closer (or gas was cheaper). My thanks go out to everyone who has done so much to preserve this truly unique wilderness.