BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
May 02 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!
Snowbank Loop
Entry Date:
August 26, 2012
Entry Point:
Snowbank Lake
Number of Days:
8
Group Size:
2
Sunday, August 26, 2012 Here at last![paragraph break] After leaving Southern Illinois at 2pm Saturday and driving through the night, we arrived in Ely at 5am Sunday. Stopped at Britton's for breakfast. Very delightful place, will give them business in the future!
The original plan was to pick our permits up at the Kawashiwi ranger station after breakfast. Since we arrived in Ely a couple hours ahead of schedule, and the r.s. wasn't open until 8am, decided to head to the r.s. and catch a quick nap in the parking lot while we waited for them to open.
However, as we were leaving Ely, noticed that a couple outfitters' signage indicated they offered permit pick-ups. We pulled into the Spirit of the Wilderness and the associate inside was very helpful, going as far as logging into my recreation.gov account and switching the permit pick-up location from Kawashiwi to the outfitter's store. So instead of waiting until 8 to get the permit, we were headed out of Ely, permit in hand, at 6. Many thanks!
Then we were off to E.P. 27.
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Unloaded the truck and loaded the canoe up. Had a little trouble locating the portage from Snowbank to Parent lake. We chalked these troubles up as the result of lack of sleep :)
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After finding the portage, did some fishing on Parent for 30 minutes or so, pulling out a decent smally. Finding a campsite and taking a nap was starting to sound too good to pass up, so we moved on up to Disappointment to start scouting.
The wind was at our backs as we paddled up Disappointment. Enough so that three canoes that came in after us tied together, side by side, then the outside canoes tied one tarp between them to make a large sail. It worked really well, pushing them across at a fast rate. Very entertaining to watch.
We set up shop on the South island campsite at around 1. It's a nice site. Very rocky, but with good trees to tie up a hammock. This was my first trip using a hammock. I found it to be very comfortable, and convenient. Will definitely be used in future trips.
After camp was set, took a (very much needed) nap. Then headed over to the bay to the West and put a hurting on the smallmouths. A couple of these made it back to camp, and into the frying pan.
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Were settled in before noon, and fished Ahsub the rest of the day. No luck. Not even a bite. But still had a great time.
After breakfast we decided to day trip to the next couple lakes on our loop and try some fishing.
Jitterbug was the next lake past Ahsub. It had a lot of vegetation in the water, enough to make fishing almost pointless due to the weeds/moss you'd reel in after every cast. Aside from the thick vegetation, the water was also very stained.
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It didn't take long to paddle on thru to Adventure lake. The northerns were biting very well, it was a fun lake to fish almost the entire afternoon. Hauled a couple of good eater-size pike back to camp on Ahsub.
Cattyman is the lake past Adventure. We could hear water rushing somewhere as soon as we were on Cattyman. The source of the noise was soon found as we portaged from Cattyman to Gibson. 
We would hear this waterfall for the next few days, as far away as Ensign lake. The mosquitos were thick on this portage, the only real bug nuisance we encountered on the whole trip.
Paddled thru Gibson and found a very nice campsite on Ashigan. After paddling and portaging all morning, relaxing around camp was in order.
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Decided to do some fishing on Ashigan, and caught nice northerns and some smallmouth.
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Covered up camp and went fishing. Debated on whether to back track to Jordan and maybe Ima, but NOAA had mentioned a chance for thunderstorms in the area, so decided to stay on Ashigan for the day.
Didn't have much luck at first, and just as we were about to give up for the morning, Scott caught a really nice northern. Decided to stay out a little longer and ended up catching many northerns and smallmouths. This was another fun lake to fish once its figured out what they wanted.
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Got back to camp at around 11 and started to get lunch going.
Within 20 minutes of getting back, the wind picked up. A lot. Then the thunder started.
We buttoned down camp and finished up lunch under the protection of tarps. The wind was almost too much for my little MSR stove, plus dirt and other debris kept being blown into the frying fish. We ended up saving the filets for supper, and they were delicious.
After just a few sprinkles but a lot of wind, the storm passed. The wind stuck around for most of the afternoon, it was enough to keep us off the water. Towards dusk the wind was completely gone, and went out for a couple hours of fishing.
It was nice having a radio around camp, for more reasons than just the weather. Listening to WELY or a baseball game was a treat on days when the wind keeps you off the water.
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Along with the leftover fish from lunch, we had some bagged chicken that was added to mac & cheese for dinner. I highly recommend the chicken and mac combo. Superb
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Today we moved camp from Ashigan to Ensign. On the portage there was a couple men and their sons. They reported catching lots of walleye on Ensign and this gave us something to look forward to.
This was Friday of Labor Day weekend, and Ensign was very busy. We had to paddle past many filled campsites before we found an available site. The site just happened to be next to the portage that would be getting us back to Snowbank in a couple of days. Very convenient.
Set up camp and relaxed for a couple hours while waiting for the wind to mellow.
Temps are in the low 70's today, and that feels nice after being in the 80's so far. The weather for the trip has been very consistent, glass lakes in the morning but windy from 11-4 or so, then glass again for a few hours. Cool enough at night to keep the flying insects at bay.
When the wind died down we got some fishing in. The walleye info was accurate, and the northerns and smallmouth were very active as well.
Fish for dinner again tonight, woohoo!
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I went for a swim after lunch and decided to clean the canoe while I was in the water. I kept feeling something move around my feet but wasn't worried about it too much. After 15 minutes or so the canoe was shining, and as I walked out of the water I noticed that my feet looked different. Many small leeches(15-16) and a couple adults had found a couple open sores on my feet to gorge themselves on. What a pleasant surprise! Used a knife to scrap them off. Note to self- don't stand in one place in the water for very long. Lesson learned :)
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I also just brought a typical hardware store tarp to throw over the ridge line. This worked just fine, but on breezy nights the noise from the tarp was noticeable at times. I'll be purchasing some silnylon in the near future.
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After camp was packed, we made the short trip over to our first portage of the day. It was 220 rods, but not a bad trail. It still felt every bit of 200r by the time it was all over.
Paddled through Boot lake, noticing how strong the wind was, and in our face. This got us talking about the next lake we'd be on, Snowbank. Snowbank (as many of you know) is wide-open. And big.
When we portaged from Boot to Snowbank, our fears were shown to be true. The wind was in our face for the entire 3 mile paddle. The waves were white capped, and beating the hell out of the bow paddler.
After a couple of hours of hard paddling, made it back to the entry point. We were both pretty exhausted, and in the process of moving gear from the canoe to the dock, I heard something drop from my open bag into the water. F***. I was lucky in that it was only 6 feet deep and could see the glimmer made by the shiny reel against the dull rocks.
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After my humbling jump into the chilly lake to retrieve the reel, we began to move gear up to the truck. I unlocked it, opened up the doors, and we started packing it up. After we were mostly loaded, I decided to start it up and get some tunes rolling. But, where was the key? I used it to unlock the truck moments earlier, but in the packing process it disappeared. After about 20 minutes of very colorful language and frantic searching, the key was found. Apparently I had carelessly set it on the middle console, and from there it found its way into a bag that had since been moved to the bed of the truck. Good times :)
We got back to Ely, chowed down at DQ, then got a quick shower. Both were equally rewarding, although the showers were more needed!