BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
June 01 2024
Entry Point 35 - Isabella Lake
Number of Permits per Day: 2
Elevation: 1595 feet
Latitude: 47.8009
Longitude: -91.3034
Isabella Lake - 35
In Search of Lost Hope - A PMA Crossing
Entry Date:
May 26, 2023
Entry Point:
Hog Creek
Exit Point:
Kawishiwi Lake (37)
Number of Days:
4
Group Size:
2
On Wednesday afternoon I picked a couple friends up at the MSP airport and then we met the other members of our group and got started packing. As we were getting our gear together we kept hearing news reports of 15 inches of snow in North Dakota. This had us a little worried that some of it might also dump on us, but snow or not we were still going. We hit the road at about 2am headed for Ely, arriving at about 7am. We quickly unloaded all our gear and canoes, waded down the shallow Picket Creek and launched the canoes into Mudro Lake. The air was cold, it was raining lightly, and as of yet there was little wind. We moved over the portages into Fourtown pretty quickly. As we got started on Fourtown the wind started picking up and continued strongly for the rest of the day. We worked our way up through Boot Lake and over the portage into Fairy where we camped on the east campsite. We were all cold, tired, wet, and ready for a hot meal. We were finally able to get a fire started with the wet wood. We put steaks on the fire, boiled some water for hot chocolate, heated up some mashed potatoes, and beans. It was a good meal for the end of a cold day. We all were ready to get some sleep.
Mudro Lake, Fourtown Lake, Boot Lake, Fairy Lake 
We paddled most of the way down, portaged the last stretch of floating bog, waded through the remainder, and looked up at the old road grade in front of us. We weren't lost and in fact were right where we had anticipated! That's really cool. This was the road that was part of the old Pow Wow which meant we weren't that far from Chickadee. We portaged over and around the grade and down into the floating spruce bog. We followed a trail through it off and on, hoping it would lead to the lake eventually. Every so often one of us would punch into a mud hole and have to crawl out, but at least the area was more open that things had been. The bog led us into a final brushy stretch. I was amazed to break out of the brush into a wide open lake. We had made it to Chickadee after nearly three hours and 450 rods of bushwhack portaging! 
FOR ME, CHICKADEE WAS A MIXED BAG OF THOUGHTS AND EMOTIONS. ON THE ONE HAND, THE FIRST MONumental unknown of the trip is behind us. On the other hand, many miles lay ahead and what if we are turned back and have to portage back this way again? That would be incredibly demoralizing. After another snack, we pushed for Fungus. There's not much open water in the first stretch so we found ourselves portaging through the alder tangle again. Once we finally found enough water to float a canoe, there was still a good deal of pushing and dragging to get it through the brush. After more struggling we made the last hurdle into Fungus Lake, the namesake of this PMA. Our first stop would be attempting to find the old campsite on the west shore. It was obvious that the ridge was a pine plantation, and I had the copy of the old Pow Wow trail map to use to try and find the site. I hiked the whole west shore and never found a grate or evidence of a site, but I did find a few old oil cans and coffee cans, poignant reminders of this place's past. The channel to Whittler goes well until the beaver dam. Thereafter, the creek isn't wide enough for a canoe and requires some pushing and pulling to clear. It's a lot of ins and outs to make it, but we finally hopped through enough channels to hit paddling water in Whittler at 11:00 am with our first view of the Pagami burn for the trip. This would be a familiar site from now on. We took yet another snack on Whittler before taking a water bottle fill up and a deep breath knowing that, once we pass this beaver dam, it's creeks for us for most of the next 24 hours, if we could even make it through.
There were a fair number of down trees after the beaver dam forcing a few more portages. The channel is very narrow this high up and sits deep into the silt so we spent a good deal of time portaging through the open valley alongside, biding our time until floatable water. At times we pulled the canoe along the shallow creek, otherwise we were traditionally portaging. Sometimes we could paddle for brief stretches. After the first beaver dam, we hit our first bitter taste of true burn-zone portaging: jack pines smacking the face, dead-fall pulverizing the shins, crumbling rock threatening to overturn you, and great swarms of gnats impeding one's respiratory function. A few of these would lay ahead before we hit good navigable water. One of the small beaver ponds on the air photo had grown into a nice larger pond. It was amazing to rest in the quiet for a moment. Once we hit the big open valley on the way to the large beaver dam, we heard the familiar buzz of a single-prop plane. This time of the year that had us concerned about the possibility of a wildfire as we knew the risks were high when we left. We wondered what the pilot would think if he saw us this far into the middle of nowhere. When the plane came into view, we were surprised to see that it was not a USFS beaver. The plane was black and white and had tires not floats. We wondered about its mission today. We made good time now that we were finally paddling and lifted over the large beaver dam. Much of the remaining stretch was navigable with only brief pullovers and drag-throughs until we finally reached Andek at about 3:00.
ANDEK IS A SMALL, UNASSUMING LAKE. WE WONDERED HOW LONG IT HAD BEEN SINCE ANYONE HAD VISITED Here. It seems so far away from everything now. Fittingly, a single crow flew over while we were there. We filled up waterbottles and tried to catch up on hydrating. The weather was sunny anD HOT AND THE LACK OF SHADE AND THE RIGORS OF BUSHWHACKING WERE WEARING ON US SOME. TWO-THIRDS DOWN, ONE-THIRD TO GO. 
OUT OF ANDEK, THERE ARE A FEW Small rapid sets and sections of fragmented creek channel making for frequent stops and slow progress. At one small rapid set, I pulled a portage pack and extras to start a bushwhack and stepped on a bad rock. Down I went landing my lower back precariously atop the rock pinnacle. Ouch! Wet and pretty stuck, it took some effort to go vertical again. We followed this routine of in and out of the canoe, keeping our eyes open for a pond followed by a long straightaway which would give us a sign of our progress. We finally hit a pond but it didn't feel right. Darn, it's the one before the pond with the straight. We pulled off at the very brushy beaver dam and forced our way up the rock face, through the jack pine, before gently working our way down the crumbling west face into the floating marsh below. The grass here was full of garter snakes for some reason as we made our way down the straight past a series of log jams. 
The stretch after the straightaway is paddleable for awhile until another rocky rapids forced another bushwhack. We got through easily enough. The last long rapids before Maniwaki is a tumbled boulder field with ample brush and no passage. It was up the ridge again for us through another dead-fall rich burn zone. The bugs were pretty horrible at this point as we got through the last couple challenging stepovers and into open water. It was an amazing site to see Maniwaki lake in front of us at about 6:00 pm, some 11 hours after we had started. We paddled over and found the old campsite. Surprisingly, the grate is gone. I'm impressed that USFS hauled this one out! We headed out for some evening fishing just because. I paddled us down to the exit creek where we would head tomorrow morning while Lil' Grumpy fished. No luck on that front, but the waterfall coming out of Maniwaki was an intimidating obstacle to face the next day. Sleep would come easily after dinner. Tomorrow would hold more adventure and more challenges. ~Perent Lake, Chickadee Lake, Fungus Lake, Whittler Lake, Andek Lake, Maniwaki Lake 
We woke up to a beautiful clear day. Breakfast of Pancakes, Bacon, and oatmeal. Packed up camp and worked our way over to Horse Lake. We spent quite a while exploring the lake. We looked at a few campsites and decided to stay at the site on the north east end of the lake. This was our favorite site of the trip. We set up camp and then hiked down to the bluffs south of the site. The weather was perfect and we very much enjoyed relaxing and exploring the area. Dinner was a cheese and hotdog pasta. We stayed up into the evening watching the stars and talking.
Fourtown Lake, Horse Lake
~Fishdance Lake, River Lake, Bow Lake, Malberg Lake, Koma Lake, Polly, Lake, Townline Lake, Kawasachong Lake, Square Lake, Kawishiwi Lake