Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Raven, Alice, and Insula
by TomT

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 08/06/2009
Entry Point: Snowbank Lake Only (EP 28)
Exit Point: Lake One (EP 30)  
Number of Days: 9
Group Size: 2
Day 2 of 9
Friday, August 07, 2009

I’m up before the alarm at 5:15. After eating and a shower we get all the gear back in the truck and then unload at the boat dock. I meet Ron (Dennis’ brother) who will shuttle my truck over to the Lake One public landing where we will be coming out. He gives me a ride back to the boat dock where our gear is already loaded on a boat with the canoe laid broadside over the middle of the boat.


We take it slow across Snowbank to the portage at Disappointment Lake. On the way I have an uneasy feeling because I don’t know where our map case is. Sure enough, it’s nowhere to be found. We unload at the portage and I tell Alex I’ll come back when I find the map. I hop on the boat and we speed across the lake and I search our room and come up empty. It has to be in the truck. Dennis gives me a ride to Lake One and sure enough it’s in the back of the pickup. How could I have not seen it! So it’s back to the dock and another ride across the lake. Good grief, what a way to start the trip.


We work out the portaging kinks through Ahsub and Jordan when alex tweaks his ankle. I decide we need to cut the day short and camp on Ima. The wind has picked up now too. The day started out beautiful but showers are in the forecast and it’s clouding up.

On the way in to Ima we meet a couple of guys who say they are on the way out to report a death on Thomas Lake. Apparently a man died the night before and his 28 year old son is waiting with the body . These guys say they have seen the body and I can tell they are a little disturbed. They don’t know the details of how it happened but want to alert someone to help. We are put in a very sobering mood after this.

Entering Ima we have no chice but to get broadsided by small whitecaps as we follow the north shore as we look for a site. We cross the lake before finding a small penninsula site open and beach the canoe in a stiff breeze. That was a very scary crossing as our canoe rolled back and forth over the waves and we’re glad to be on dry land.

Alex uses the tent while I will be sleeping in my new Warbonnet Blackbird hammock. It takes a while to set up in the wind but we then split wood somebody left and cook Italian sausage over the fire. Alex has potato salad while I have a greek salad with mine.


We’re pretty beat so hit the bags before dark to read our books. Mine is “Canoeing With The Cree” and Alex reads a true account of Navy Seals making a rescue in Afgahnistan. Alex enlisted early in the Army and will go to Fort Benning in June for boot camp after he’s done with High School. He wants to be a Ranger. Both me and his Mom are very proud of him.