BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
January 08 2025
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.
Lake One to Kawishiwi River
Entry Date:
September 12, 2008
Entry Point:
Lake One
Number of Days:
4
Group Size:
4
The four of us all took off work a little early and met at Patrick’s house to load up the vehicle, strap on the canoe and hit the road. We had one little stop to make and that was to pick up a treat from Adam’s wife downtown Minneapolis; some carrot cake muffins for the road and an Incredible Hulk notebook to journal in! The ride up to Ely was pretty eventful, we got to listen to Patrick work via his cell phone and many inside jokes that would continue throughout the trip were created. Usually we have entered the BWCA from the Grand Marais side and this would be the first time we have entered through Ely. We made it to Ely and were a bit unsure on how close the Kawishiwi Lodge was and it ended up being a little farther out then we had expected. We called the lodge and asked them to stay open so we could get our permits that night so we could head out early in the morning the next day; they obliged! About a mile away from the lodge we almost ran over a wolf standing in the middle of the road, I think it was there to welcome us!
We finally arrived to our destination, the Kawishiwi lodge, just before 9:00PM. We checked in, got our permits, and headed to the bunk house.
We arrived to the nice little bunkhouse, which included a bathroom and kitchen, located right on the lake (great spot) repacked our gear, had some dinner, some beers and did a little night fishing on the dock (no luck).
We hit the sack around 11:30PM and were hoping to wake early to beat any crowds… 
We woke up at 4:30 AM and when we stepped outside realized that it was still pitch black outside (lesson learned for future trips). This gave us time to eat breakfast, drink some coffee and get ready to leave the first sign of light.
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Around 5:45 AM, that moment finally came and we headed out on our journey. It was a perfect calm day but the fog was dense and did not lift until just before noon that day. The GPS proved to be very handy in the fog situation as it was very hard to see landmarks navigating via a map.
A few portages later and one slight detour, we had arrived on the Kawishiwi River. It was very scenic; we saw a bald eagle just before reaching our destination. The island site we hoped for was occupied so we double back about a stones throw away to a peninsula we passed that looked nice. The site turned out to be a 4 star site (imo), perfect for our three tents, great views of the lake too! We had camp set up and were sitting around the grate by noon.
Bobby Kielty (Patrick) and Paul Molitor (Chris) would pay us a visit through out our trip… one of the random inside joke things but the pictures don’t lie.
We did a little fishing but only managed one smallie. There was not a lot of dead wood to burn around camp so our fire was not the greatest for the first night but we would remedy that the next day/night.
We cooked monster steaks that night which took forever over our weak fire. Lesson learned… bring thinner steaks next year because we can hardly wait to eat them and the quicker the better!
The weather was perfect, no bugs; we crashed around 10:00PM
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We woke to another wonderful calm day. We made some fresh coffee and enjoyed a fruit cup and breakfast bar then decided to venture out and get some real wood for the night’s fire, do some fishing, and explore a bit. We were very successful finding lots of drift wood to burn! We only caught a few fish during our exploration , and we hiked to Conchu lake that turned out to be a designated trout lake; because not all of us had trout stamps, we decided to not fish it and head back. It was a great day on the water. [paragraph break] 
We got back to camp around 5 PM and started a fire and spent a lot of time fishing from shore and telling stories (often continuing our inside jokes). The randomness of stories and adventures are things that make these trips so special! [paragraph break] 
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Later that evening it began to rain but because we were now well equipped with wood and had a perfect tarp set up over the fire/grate area, we enjoyed the night eating hot chili, drinking semi cold cocktails and telling even more stories… while staying dry for the most part.[paragraph break] 
The rain would continue through the night. I was worried about my tent location as I was down hill and could see a stream flow under, however, when I crawled in my tent to sleep, it was bone dry! My cheap $70 Gander Mtn 2 man tent has survived a bear stomping from a previous trip and a few monster rain storms, so far a great buy! The two guys sharing a tent had a brand new tent that did not do so well in the rain making their night a bit more uncomfortable.
We woke up to more light rain in the morning but this was not a big deal because as we were going to be heading out today anyway and a little rain was just part of our adventure. We packed our gear and again had some coffee and breakfast before paddling back. We were in no hurry and I decided to fish at one of the rapids at a portage and caught a little pike. I had a few more strikes on the other side of the portage also but could not land.
We made it back to the outfitters around 2:00 PM, showered up and headed to the steakhouse in Ely for some big greasy burgers and a couple of cold beers!
It was a great trip with friends and we all agreed that we will make this an annual adventure!
Lessons Learned:[paragraph break] - Bring an Axe or Hatchet[paragraph break] - Check Sunrise time[paragraph break] - A Monkey (to hang food bag)[paragraph break] - Make that 2 Monkey’s (to chase red squirrel away)[paragraph break] - Liquid proof container for oil or use Crisco bar![paragraph break] - More Gummies![paragraph break] - Thinner steaks (hotter fire)[paragraph break]
Bobby Kielty Says…[paragraph break] - “Let the saw do the sawin’”[paragraph break] - “If you want to catch a fish, stay with your pole at all times”[paragraph break] - “Let gravity do the work”[paragraph break] - “Give to God what belongs to God”[paragraph break] - “You can’t catch a fish if you are not fishing”[paragraph break] 
