My 16 year old son and I do a BWCA trip every summer. This year we planned to put in at Baker Lake with a goal of camping on Kelly lake. We did not plan to portage much so I packed a little extra gear. We had a hard time finding a camp site. We searched Kelly Lake and then went to Burnt Lake and on to Smoke Lake where we finally found a spot.

The portages getting to Smoke Lake were somewhat tough but were manageable. because of that extra gear I packed, we had a couple of extra heavy packs. With regards to our canoe, thank God for Kevlar. 

Fishing on Smoke Lake was great if northerns was your fish of choice. we did catch one walleye which we had for dinner.

Would for definitely do this trip again.