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!
Snowbank to Thomas Memorial Weekend 2019
Entry Date:
May 22, 2019
Entry Point:
Snowbank Lake
Number of Days:
6
Group Size:
6
We ended up getting to the landing at about 7:30 on Wednesday, so not quite as early as we hoped (but in hindsight maybe it was all meant to be). The weather was extremely windy and raining as we left the outfitter. When we got to the canoe landing, I looked out on the lake and there were some large rollers out there, but I was temporarily relieved as I saw another tandem canoe out there braving the waves. As I went back to grab more gear I told the rest of the crew that it looked a little rough, but if we skirted around the islands as best we could it was definitely doable and ‘hey someone else is doing it too.’ Well my buddies looked out and said they couldn’t see any other canoes… we eventually saw a couple heads bobbing out there about a half mile or so out from the landing and realized they had capsized.
Our group of 6 guys was the only people around. The next few hours were quite hectic and a little bit of a daze. One of the guys and I drove back to the outfitter. At the outfitter – Adam who is the new owner rustled up a few guys who were staying in cabins and got a couple boats loaded up to head over. When we left we told the other four of our guys to sit tight, as clearly the waves were dangerous and you can’t be sure these two will not cause you to capsize as well. They did not listen. Two of the guys paddled out and drug the capsized folks to the nearest shoreline. The other two guys made their way down the shoreline with warm and dry clothes. At this point the motor boats arrived on the scene where everyone was now on shore, grabbed the capsized fellas from shore and brought them back to the canoe landing, where we got them into warm vehicles. We estimated that the two guys had spent about 45 mins to an hour in the water that was about 45 degrees. After some time in front of a fire at the outfitter they were doing well. A wild few hours that could have been a lot worse and in hindsight glad my friends didn’t listen.
Back at the landing about 10:30 with the wind still formidable we decided that it was probably not going to work to get to Thomas that day – so we called an audible and just went to Disappointment day one. A little gun shy we took the longer route through Parent Lake and did the extra portage. The rain and wind were brutal so we took one of the first sites we could find on Disappointment. Most definitely not a 5 star site, but it got the job done.
Got up early day 2 and headed to Thomas. The wind had kicked back quite a few notches and the travel went smoothly. A lot of in’s and out’s on that trek, but as a group we seem to have a pretty good routine and single portage pretty quickly. We setup at an island site on Thomas that was a really great site. After camp was set we got out for a few hours of fishing with minimal success, had what would have turned out to be our nicest trout of the trip get off right at the boat. We did pretty well bobber fishing the first night right from our campsite.
The next 2 full days on Thomas we got treated with near constant strong winds and quite a bit of rain making fishing really challenging. We were able to hook into a few trout & walleye here and there when we could get on the water, but didn’t dial it in or catch any trophies. Also the hot shore bite from the first night was a one-time occurrence. The strong winds did allow us to lounge around our campsite more than normal and we had a few fun games of cards. We stayed 3 nights on Thomas.
We decided to travel on Sunday morning to get a little closer to Snowbank for our departure on Monday and decided on staying on Jordan. That morning of travel was our nicest weather of the trip and after getting camp all set on Jordan, I convinced my buddy to head back to Ima to chase trout one last time. Wouldn’t ya know it, within minutes of paddling out our sunny blue skies turned grey and our most loyal companion on the trip (the wind) returned. We stuck with our plan to go to Ima despite the conditions… we gave it a few hard hours and 1 trout later returned to Jordan cold and wet. Successful Ima excursion? Meh, maybe… glad we did it but it was pretty damn cold and windy for one fish.
Got going pretty early Monday morning and back to the vehicle before noon… back to the real world.
Overall, it was an incredible trip even if we didn’t get to do as much fishing (or as successful) as we hoped – definitely not a trip we are likely to forget. Sometimes that extra beer (or 3) the night before delays you just enough to be in the right place at the right time. I’ll use that insight to barter with the wife the next time I am out with the guys. Check out the video my buddy made to see some of the highlights. ~Snowbank Lake, Disappointment Lake, Thomas Lake, Jordan Lake, Ima Lake