BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
May 08 2024
Entry Point 39 - Baker Lake
Number of Permits per Day: 2
Elevation: 1497 feet
Latitude: 47.8452
Longitude: -90.8169
Summary: A 5-day loop from Baker up the Temperance lakes to Cherokee, and back through Sawbill and Smoke lakes back to Baker. A fairly difficult trip.
Day 0: We drove up from Stillwater in the morning and camped at one of the 5 walk-in campsites at Baker Lake, and it was nice.
Day 1 (Baker to S. Temperance) - A beautiful day, we decided to paddle all the way to South Temperance the first day which was a great paddle with easy portages except for the last one. We picked the campsite on top of a huge rock that was close to the middle of the lake. Tried fishing some but no luck
Day 2 (Rest) - In the night, we encountered the worst storm of the entire season. While we were there 19 people had to be rescued from the BWCA. We had about 50mph straightline winds, and I'm still surprised that the huge tent we had stood up to it. We slept in and took a rest day because of the intense winds. Amazingly beautiful sunset.
Day 3 (S. Temperance to Cherokee) - We left as early as we could to beat the heat, but it was no good. The lengthy, hilly portages were challenging and by the last portage we were pretty beat. We overpacked and single portaged which led us to speedier exhaustion. Still amazing weather. North Temperance was a beaut- I wish we had stayed there instead of South. We took the southeasterly facing campsite on Cherokee on the southeastern skinny island. Neat little site.
Day 4 (Cherokee to Sawbill) - Left a little later in the day but it was ok. We took our time going down the river letting out of the southwest part of Cherokee and it was a great area. BEWARE: The area between Ada and Skoop Lakes appears to be floatable, but a dam built recently has made the portion impossible to float. Be prepared for a long portage through muck and water. A guy that we saw there said he had been going to the BWCA for 40 years at least once per year and it was the worst portage he had ever seen. By the time we got to Sawbill it was pretty hot. We paddled all the way down to the site next to the portage onto Smoke.
Day 5 (Sawbill to Baker) - Cooler, cloudier weather for the first time on the trip. We were pretty hungry (I underpacked food a little and I felt really bad) and we were taunting each other with vivid descriptions of the burgers we were going to eat ASAP after getting out. We paddled back to Baker and returned our gear to Sawtooth outfitters.
Overall great route.
Brule Lake
Entry Date:
June 17, 2013
Entry Point:
Brule Lake
Number of Days:
4
Group Size:
2
Our main focus was fishing and we had to work hard for the fish. In 3 days of fishing (8-10 hrs/day) we only caught 3 small walleyes, 6 hammerhandle pike and around 20 smallies (most in the 12-16 inch range). We worked hard for the fish we caught. The only pattern we were able to find was casting black/gold Rapalas toward large brushy trees in the water over shorelines with deep drop-offs. That is where we caught almost every fish. We fished all 3 Cone lakes, Cliff Lake, and Brule. We spent one day on Brule fishing all the islands in Cone Bay and the nearby islands on the main lake, but we only raised 2 fish around the islands. It was great looking water and lake structure. We fished shallow, deep, artificials, jigs, and leeches but alas no fish. We did keep 4 small fish for a meal. The interesting thing was that all 4 fish (both smallies and walleye) were full of spawn (both males and females).
Overall we had a great campsite, great weather and a great time despite the poor fishing. When we left Thursday morning to cross Brule the entire lake was glass. We felt very fortunate to not have to deal with big waves/wind on either trip across the lake. I’m looking forward to another trip next year, but will probably consider another location.