BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
May 05 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!
Boulder Lake and Wild Animals
Entry Date:
Entry Point:
Crab Lake and Cummings from Burntside Lake
Number of Days:
7
Group Size:
7
We canoed through Crab Lake and into Clark lake. I've been to Clark Lake before and it is a great little lake with a nice camp site. The camp site has had some modifications done to it. But it is neat. There is an old road that runs right into camp. There are signs of the past, with an old pick, wheel barrel. If you follow the grown in road you will fine an old dump sight with a bed frame, bath tub and other signs from the 1970's. 
From Clark we traveled to Boulder lake. We went through Phantom lake and Spirit lake. Boulder was a very pretty lake. We did a lay over day so the kids could swim and fish a lot. My son caught a 3.5lb small mouth and pile of northern pike. the island campsite was spacious and great for swimming. But the lakes name clearly comes from the thousands of boulders scattered in the water. We would snorkel around and find rocks to stand on that were 50-80 feet from shore! While exploring my son had a common garter snake attack him while he was standing on a beaver hut, he had to use his paddle to flip the snake in the water! On the opposite side of the lake my father was cleaning fish and a garter snake slithered up and bit his finger, and yet a second snake rose up like a cobra to scare him up. This was the strangest behavior I've ever seen from these snakes. 
We watched this buck from across the lake. 
We attempted to follow the creek to Bear Lake on our lay over day. But when it dried up we decided not to attempt it. The last thing we wanted to make it difficult for the kids.
The next lake we traveled to was Battle Lake. This was another pretty lake. When we had arrived a canoe with a DNR Fisheries guy came up and introduced himself. Andy was full of great information. We were even surprised to find out that the best man in his wedding was a guy that lived only one block from my parents house only 7 hours from ely! Small world.. We had storms rolling in, causing the wind to blow pretty wild. The winds seem to have upset the bees. My nephew got stung on the finger and just an hour later my niece got stung on the lip and her face swelled up pretty bad. 
We did a grouse and her chicks.. she did not attack anyone! 
From battle we traveled to Crab Lake and enjoyed two days of off and on again rain and t-storms.. even in the rain everyone still had fun and caught all the fish they could. After crab we portaged our way back to civilization with the hopes of Dairy Queen blizzards, and cheese burgers! 
