BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
April 20 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!
Isabella Lake Trip - Overnight Paddle - 3 Nights/4 Days
Entry Date:
May 28, 2021
Entry Point:
Isabella Lake
Number of Days:
4
Group Size:
4
Day 2 - Daybreak, we are all cold and getting the fire started, and we realized we never cleaned the fish and thought that would be a good breakfast. Well, apparently someone else that was a good idea because the stringer and fish were gone from where we left them in the lake that night. We completely spaced on it the night prior, and it looks as if a Racoon, bear, or another predator got a free meal. Its fine, there's plenty more fish out there. We made breakfast, liquid eggs and bacon, just fine. We packed up our canoes, packed our lunch (PBJ Sandies, Protein Cookies, Homemade Venison Jerky) and headed off for our day trip to the far west side of Isabella to portage to Isabella River where we heard the Walleye fishing was pristine. Boy we had a day ahead of us, a windy windy day. Of course the wind is against us, so it was a solid hour or so paddle to the other side of Isabella. We found a cove and fished that for a bit, but didn't catch a thing, and maybe thought it was due to the huge beaver lodge there. We moved on, continued to the portage. We made it, and took the very short portage to Isabella Lake. We set our stuff down, had a sandwich then walked the trail back to part of the Pow Wow Trail to see the small set of rapids and waterfall it had to offer. A cool little photo opp. We got in our canoes and headed down the river, and the wind had gotten worse. I think we made it about 30 minutes maybe and decided to head back and just drift backwards to the portage and fish that way. The wind was brutal, we barely made it 300 yards in that 30 minutes. But, we were rewarded with a few Walleye take back to camp. Seems that a slip bobber setup, with an orange or pink jig head and a sucker minnow was the ticket this trip. After our long trip back to camp we didnt make the same mistake as the night prior, we cleaned the fish, cooked them up with good ole Shore Lunch and dined. After supper we headed back out for a night cruise and then back to camp for a much warmer overnight of about 40 degrees. Perfect.
Day 3 - Our last full day. You know the drill, wake up, eat, start paddling. Much cooler this day, windy, cloudy as all get out. Not a cloud in the sky the previous 2 days. We did by far have the most luck fishing this day. We went back to the cove on the north side of the lake, and we caught about 20 walleye that morning. The craziest part, all in about 4-5 feet of water depth. I've never seen anything like it. Same lure rigged up, same bait, same result. We went back to camp, ate fish, and prepared camp for the storm that we could see rolling in. That was a treat to watch, the aftermath not so much. The wind whipped, and the clouds opened up a heavy downpour. We sat in the tent and played cards and drank bourbon, so it wasn't a total loss. However, we did all wake up in the middle of the night to realize our tent has a few leaks, we were all in standing water. Good thing it was the final night.
Day 4 - Last day, time to pack up camp and head back to our entry point and truck. We decided to head out right away in the morning since we noticed the wind picked up mid morning most days, and we didn't want to fight that all the way back, it would've turned a 30 minute paddle into an hour. We got back, loaded up the truck and headed back to Ely to drop off the canoes.
Overall - A great trip, they're all great aren't they? Not a single bug I failed to mention, but the wind and colder weather helped big time. Gorgeous lake, good fishing, very big in acreage, and a perfect campsite. Had a great time, and looking forward to next years trip.