Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

EP 27 - Snowbank to Thomas and back in May 2018
by BigBearArlich

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 05/15/2018
Entry & Exit Point: Snowbank Lake (EP 27)
Number of Days: 5
Group Size: 2
Day 2 of 5
Wednesday, May 16, 2018~Snowbank Lake, Disappointment Lake, Ahsub Lake, Jitterbug Lake, Adventure Lake, Cattyman Lake, Jordan Lake, Ima Lake, Hatchet Lake, Thomas Lake

5am alarm. By 5:30 we went down to turn in our key, pick up bait including live minnows, salted minnows, and frozen smelt.

By 6am we were sitting down in Britton's Cafe, one of my most favoritest breakfast spots in the world. Their caramel apple french toast, 2 eggs, and sausage is the perfect breakfast before the huge day we had ahead of us. Out the door by 6:30, we headed back through down on our way to entry point 27, with those pre-departure butterflies in our stomachs.

We arrived at the mostly empty parking lot, unloaded the canoe and gear, and carried everything down to the dock to load up. All set and ready to go, we pushed off from the dock and started our adventure at around 7:30am. Having heard rumors about how nasty Snowbank can be, we counted ourselves lucky that we had a relatively easy paddle across to our first portage into Disappointment lake, after a short unplanned detour the wrong way around a big island... The portage was dry, and relatively uneventful, but we felt every rod of that 140 rod portage. The weather was cooperating, and our 2+ mile paddle across disappointment also felt easy. It was at the next portage where we met our next adventure. As primary navigator, I take full responsibility, but man those little red dotted lines and big red dots and other lines for hiking trails can all look pretty similar. We ended up landing at the campsite near the portage, wandered around the woods for a while, found a trail, followed it, realized we were on the hiking trail, backtracked, found the portage, and ended up making a 25 rod portage into a 200+ rod. But we made it eventually.

Paddled across Ahsub, Jitterbug, and Adventure Lake very quickly. Arrived on Cattyman Lake, and heard a deafening roar from across the lake. Even though it was in the wrong direction, we decided to check out the waterfall between Cattyman and Gibson, and we were glad we did. It was spectacular. Snapped some photos, and a slammed a few handfuls of my homemade trail mix (which consists only of shelled pistachios and peanut butter m&ms because Im a grown man) we headed back to our route.

Jordan Lake was a breeze, through the narrow channel and into Ima. The weather was still with us, with a slight tailwind, and before we knew it we were approaching the portage from Ima to Hatchet. It was here that we saw the last evidence of the late ice out, with a chunk on shore, hiding in the shade between two boulders. I took a picture so we had photo evidence.

It was also about here where things start to get blurry, the amount of physical exertion and low calorie intake was catching up to us. I was so thankful to have my katadyn be free water bottle as I was drinking about two bottles per lake at this point. The trip so far had seemed pretty easy overall, but it was loooong. It was after 2pm at this point and we had been going non-stop.

Hatchet was a quick paddle, and the short series of streams and portages went by quickly with the shores lined with massive painted turtles sunbathing and urging us onward. We saw some moose tracks on one of the portages, and also a bunch of big trout in less than a foot of water heading upstream caught our attention, though they werent interested in anything we offered them.

We finally reached Thomas. Met by a group of 3 canoes fishing in the bay we first entered, the told us that they were the only group on the lake from what they had seen, and confirmed our targeted campsite was available. After another paddle we arrived at our campsite. A short break and then time to set up camp!

With camp set up, we cooked our traditional first night meal, tinfoil dinners. Something I picked up from Boy Scouts - Hamburger, potatoes, carrots, onions, a packet of gravy mix, and some water. Wrap multiple times in layers of tinfoil, put into a zip lock bag and freeze until the morning we enter the woods. They are thawed by dinner time and a welcomed, hearty meal after a long trek. They were amazing. We relaxed for a while, and then after a few exhausted, half hearted casts from shore, we called it a night and went to bed.