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BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog

March 18 2024

Entry Point 30 - Lake One

Lake One entry point allows overnight paddle only. This entry point is supported by Kawishiwi Ranger Station near the city of Ely, MN. The distance from ranger station to entry point is 21 miles. Access is a canoe landing at 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!

Lake One to Insula

by ILikePike
Trip Report

Entry Date: June 16, 2007
Entry Point: Lake One
Number of Days: 8
Group Size: 6

Trip Introduction:
This is my second trip to BWCA and longest trip. The other people have gone for around 20 years or more. We just found out that insula got bass in it so we decided to go there this year for our annual trip. When the other guys went there earlier there were no bass.

Day 1 of 8


Saturday, June 16, 2007- Three of us came(including me) from Wisconsing while the other three are from Minnesota. Us three camped at a campground by superior last night and we got to the station at 10:15am Saturday. We left the station at about 11:00 and made last minute stops and got out on the water at 12:45. We wanted to get to insula in one day but we werent sure of it and we thought we would make it to hudson. Weather was basically perfect with a little wind at our back. We got through the hudson-insula portage at 6:00 and decided to try to get to a campsite suggested by a person's son who said it was a 4 star. The campsite was occupied so we decided to camp at the site SE of Williamson Island at 8:30. 15 miles in one day exhausting.

 



Day 2 of 8


Sunday, June 17, 2007- A cloudy morning with some wind. We saw a group of canoes pass our site. My dad and i went fishing around an island and noticed that the campsite we wanted was open. It is west of the narrows and north of Williamson Island. As we were at that campsite it started to rain so we left a pack there hoping noone would take it. When we were paddling back it started to thunder and lightning. We decided to move camp during the storm so we wouldnt lose the site. We got the campsite(i thought 5 star) and finially got fishing at 8:00pm when it stopped. We got a few SB and a pike.

 



Day 3 of 8


Monday, June 18, 2007- I heard rain on the tent when i woke up. We fished in the rain and caught around 12 of Walleye(Dub Ya) by the east side of the peninsula to the west of our campsite. We didnt do so well at night in the same spot.

 



Day 4 of 8


Tuesday, June 19, 2007- Rain and wind was the story of today. Winds were really high today so we went to fish in the bay by the Kiana portage. We did okay and we got a 17inch SB(my dad) and 22 pike(me) on a double whammy by the beaver house. 

 



Day 5 of 8


Wednesday, June 20, 2007- Wind was the story today with some rain during the night. 2 people had to leave today back to the EP. We werent sure if they would make it because they left around 9. It took us 8 hours on one day but they were against the wind the whole time after insula. We caught three fish during the day time.Only one big SB 17in (my biggest ever) We had to fish around camp because the high winds. But since fishing wasnt great on insula we decided to check out Cache Lake. It has dark water and we didnt catch a fish but we got about 100 feet from a bull moose and it was the first moose i have ever seen and it was huge! The wind was pounding the north shore so while we were fishing before dark we decide to troll the north shore before we got to our fishing spot. I caught a 17in Dub Ya(my biggest ever) and 14. We got to the spot where we wanted to and my dad caught a small SB. We troll the rest of the night where i got the first 2 fish and got a total of 9 fish. Good size with 16 Sb, and two 17 Dub Ya.  

 



Day 6 of 8


Thursday, June 21, 2007- Today since it was the first calm fishing day we went to the same spot as the night before. We did pretty good i caught 17in SB(my biggest ever), and 26in pike(my biggest FISH ever). It rained a little but not much. Tonight we went to the same spot and trolled and did ok. i got a 19in Dub Ya(my biggest ever and no picture because I ran out of them). Today was my best day of fishing not quantity but quality. Today was also the first day that we could have a full day of fishing because the weather was good.  

 



Day 7 of 8


Friday, June 22, 2007- We decided that we didnt want to go 15 miles on our last day because we could have bad weather like the other guys so we wanted to go to hudson. It was sunny and a little wind.We left our 5 star camp around 9:30 we took a secret portage by the west side of the lake and we thought it would cut time but it didnt it still took 2 hours to get to the insula-hudson portage. we decided to move on to lake four to camp. we got there around 1:30 and set up camp. We got out fishing around 4 by the NE long bay of the lake by the fire lake portage and brought back Dub Ya and a bass which was only our 3rd fish meal of the trip. The first day without rain.

 



Day 8 of 8


Saturday, June 23, 2007- We left camp a little before ten and thought we'd be out by 1. We got through the portages fast but they sure were crowded. We got to the EP around 1 and packed up. A successful trip with no major injuries, decent fishing, and poor weather. i got around 50 fish in the trip.

 


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