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!
One Vessel and Two Souls (Mom and Son)
Entry Date:
August 17, 2023
Entry Point:
Farm Lake
Exit Point:
South Kawishiwi River (32)
Number of Days:
3
Group Size:
2
After an exhaustive review of the equipment provided by River Point Outfitters and viewing of the required safety video, Matt loaded us up and dropped us at the entry point for our first day. It was cloudy and windy and we were facing our largest open water of the trip right off. Luckily Matt carefully pointed out our exit from Farm Lake (NOT into South Farm Lake) and helped us get the heavier packs to the front of the canoe to help with the windy conditions. My first step into the canoe was a bit off and I ended up waist deep in the water. Oops! Seems that I’ve lost all authority as the experienced one. I reassured several spectators that I was fine, just embarrassed, and we got underway. We made it across the open water and were happy to see the BWCA boundary buoys and sign before too long! Also the weather cleared giving us a perfect day.
We had been warned about finding the portage into Clear Lake (by reading trip reports and by Matt). It is not at the overturned pine and flat rock, just a bit past there. So after disembarking we got ready for our first portage. Whoa! It was harder than we expected - longer, steeper, narrower, more roots and rocks on the path. That was a good introduction. It was the longest of any portage until our pickup spot. Ali took off with the canoe before I could hardly get used to the lightest of the packs. Eventually I got to the other end also and we returned for the other two packs and some extraneous stuff. Yes, double portaging is what you get with a senior in the group of two! At this time, we hadn’t seen a single other canoe or person.
Clear Lake is beautiful with several good available campsites, but we were on a roll so decided to keep going. The portage out of Clear Lake is easy to find from this end. I sure wouldn’t like to hunt for it from the south! As we left I wanted to go a bit farther before getting in the canoe and I almost lost my shoe in the stinky muck. There were weeds for quite a few yards before hitting clear water. Along the path we had seen flattened grass and a couple of paths off to the weedy area nearby. Maybe moose had rested there?
At this point, we started to see other people - and they were all in the campsites that we were hoping for! We decided to try for one of Matt’s favorite sites, 1131, that he had circled on our map. Nope, it was also taken. Now for a decision - go back to our original route or proceed more eastward through another short portage to an area with more campsites showing. We were already a bit off our planned route, but we proceeded on.
After a short but steep portage, we turned to our right to check out camp site 1128. Never found it and the area is quite weedy and probably buggy. It was getting late and we still had to find an open campsite and set up camp with equipment that was all unfamiliar to us. We were starting to panic! There were two more campsites not too far off. As we approached the first, my hopes sank - is that a rock or another canoe going to grab it? It was a rock! Yay, we found the most beautiful campsite ever, 1134! A beautiful fire grate area with logs to sit on and flat rocks for cooking. Better yet, kindly campers had left plenty of wood of all sizes including birch bark for our first BWCA wilderness cooking experience! I wouldn’t say that the landing was the easiest, but we did it several times and had a choice of a narrow shallow spot or along a large rock and never decided which was easier.
Our next panic was finding the matches or anything to start a fire. We remembered seeing that on the table at the outfitters, but had no clue where they had been packed. Finally we found them - in a small waterproof holder, in a small bag, in a larger bag. Critical find!
About bugs - I didn’t have any problem, but Ali found that his mosquito netting saved him from a few bites. Of course, the latrine was buzzing! What would you expect?
By the time we had our camp set up and had cooked dinner and finally got our food pack hanging safely it was getting dark. We decided that we’d stay here for two nights and have a good rest on Day Two. After Ali took a very quick dip in the dark lake, we were glad to retire for the night.
Woke around midnight to wolves howling! The louder was to our northwest and was repeated several times until a reply came from the northeast! We felt surrounded, but went back to sleep easily. 
Best advice of the trip, response to saying we had been lost a couple of times: "Were you really lost or just a little confused about where you were?"
Night Two: Either the wolves were quiet or we slept through them.
No problem with the first portage. Then we meandered along the river, not exactly on the direct path we had planned, but close enough. At portage 895 we decided not to try the rapids even though the rangers had thought we could do it going south. We picnicked nearby and continued on. This part of the river was quite busy, mostly with day trip fishermen as far as we could tell. It was, in fact, a good fishing area. Ali caught a bass and another pike, which we released since we were on the way to our exit point.
It was hot, but my hopes for a quick dip at the exit landing were dashed. It was pretty lagoon-y there. But the shade was welcome.
We made it! Proud of ourselves for meeting the mental and physical challenges of this short trip. On our return to Ely, we celebrated with a well-deserved French bistro dinner at the Chocolate Moose! 
