Would like to do a solo trip starting at Round Lake down to Cherokee and back. I am an experienced (30 years of Quetico/BWCAW trips) and fit 62year old. Have been thru this area once before on the Frost River route, it's been a while though. Any suggestions on this area or any other 6-7 day trips in this area?

I did this trip in June 2016. I had intended to continue east to Brule, north to Gaskin and then back west to Long Island and out for a ten day loop. I bruised my foot the first day and ended up staying on Cherokee and going back out to Cross River access.

I took a leisurely three days to get to Cherokee due to rough winds starting up early every day and taking it easy on my foot. It could easily be done in two days. Fast travelers could do it in one, but it is way too pretty to rush through. The hardest portages are your first day to Missing Link and Snipe. They get easier from there.

Cherokee is a wonderful lake to base on for a few days. Lots of exploring to do. There is a campsite on the north shore that is inconveniently high above the water, but the view from the campfire is spectacular. I noted in my journal that it would be a nice site for a fall trip. I came back out through Ham to Cross River landing just for some different lakes. Its a nice stroll back to the outfitters or the Round Lake access.

I stayed in a bunkhouse at Tuscarora Lodge and Outfitters the night before jumping off, had their French Toast breakfast and payed to park my vehicle there as I had another boat with me. Great folks. I will be back there for sure, probably to do the loop I had originally planned.

I was going to do this route the exact same time frame that you are planning. After extensively reviewing the portages, calculating, and recalculating, I switched my permit to EP#47. I'm going to stay at Rockwood and paddle across Poplar down into Caribou, Horseshoe and camp on Gaskin. I'll day trip over to Winchell, up through Omega, Henson and back to Gaskin. Another day I'm going to head east/southeast down to Vista Lake and some of those smaller lakes in the area. I went from Sawbill to Cherokee last September and really enjoyed it. My brother started that Sawbill to Cherokee route just this morning.

Your route is a good one, and very doable. EP #50 is very close to the same route, perhaps more paddling and more portages, but the portages all look to be shorter. Maybe even more opportunities to set up camp along the way if you wanted to. If you look at the map link on this site, an entire lake is missing. Cross Bay Lake itself doesn't show up on the map but the portages in and out of it do. Cross Bay Lake is south of Ham Lake, and north of Rib Lake. It's long and narrow.

We did a version of that loop last spring. Rainy Day people

Weather prevented us from visiting Cherokee Lake but, the rest of the report should give you a taste of what to expect.

i can't figureout why you'd enter at round to get to cherokee? it seems cross bay entry is more suited to getting to cherokee if you have limited amount of time.

we went in cross bay in early may and could have made it to cherokee the first day but high water and other things slowed us down. we were able to make it out in 8 hours, double tripping the portages.

it is quite a bit of in and out of the canoe, short paddles, portages aren't so long. but going in through round either to missing link and then cutting back to cross bay is a bit more difficult portages but maybe one or two less.

just my 2cents.