Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Nice Little Trip With The Guys--Entry At Snowbank
by bottomtothetap

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 09/06/2015
Entry & Exit Point: Snowbank Lake (EP 27)
Number of Days: 5
Group Size: 4
Day 2 of 5
On the morning we were to hit the water, we got up about 5 AM.

After we each got in our final shower for a few days, we walked down to Brittons Cafe for a very filling breakfast. On our walk back to CCO, we stopped at The Great Outdoors for leeches. I introduced myself to TGO and remembering his comments on bwca.com regarding smallmouth bass, casually mentioned to him that we were going to target some smallies. You took the bait, TGO, and your entertaining response did not disappoint!

After a pleasant drive down the Fernberg road, noting from the standing water and sticks on the roadway that the previous night's storms had been rather intense, we arrived at the Snowbank landing and were off. Light breezes this morning made our crossing of Snowbank a piece of cake. We took the portage from Snowbank direct to Disappointment and while it does have just a bit of length (our longest this trip) that was pretty easy too. The water remained rather flat as we made our way up Disappointment. As best we could tell, all campsites on Disappointment were occupied from the night before. We got reports from those campers, and others on the lake, that the storm was indeed a nasty one and we noticed a number of freshly downed and snapped trees. Our timing for departure on this trip was lucky!

Our target for the day was Jordan Lake and after winding our way through the several small lakes that follow Disappointment, we found ourselves at Jordan just as we were really getting hungry for lunch. We could see that the northern-most campsite was already taken so we headed toward the next site south. It was open and it was a keeper! This site has a great landing area on it's north end and a short walk up hill from there provides a beautiful vista from the firegrate/tent-pad area out over Jordan Lake. After an awesome ham-sandwich lunch and setting up the tents and other gear, we explored the rest of the site before taking a refreshing swim to wash off the sweat from that day's work and high heat. The rest of the day was occupied by just hanging out, swapping stories and wetting a line or two from shore (no luck). As the sun set we started on our fresh-steak supper and enjoyed that under a tarp to avoid the brief showers that fell. A bug-free September evening meant that we were able to hang out by the campfire well into the night before retiring to the tent and catching our Z's sans-sleeping bags due to the unseasonably warm temperatures.

class="responsive tripimage" src="https://photos.bwca.com/b/BOTTOMTOTHETAP-071115-222209.JPG" align="left" >