BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
September 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.
Taking Amber to Amber Lake
Entry Date:
August 15, 2015
Entry Point:
Kawishiwi Lake
Number of Days:
7
Group Size:
3
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Today we moved camp from Ashigan to Ensign. On the portage there was a couple men and their sons. They reported catching lots of walleye on Ensign and this gave us something to look forward to.
This was Friday of Labor Day weekend, and Ensign was very busy. We had to paddle past many filled campsites before we found an available site. The site just happened to be next to the portage that would be getting us back to Snowbank in a couple of days. Very convenient.
Set up camp and relaxed for a couple hours while waiting for the wind to mellow.
Temps are in the low 70's today, and that feels nice after being in the 80's so far. The weather for the trip has been very consistent, glass lakes in the morning but windy from 11-4 or so, then glass again for a few hours. Cool enough at night to keep the flying insects at bay.
When the wind died down we got some fishing in. The walleye info was accurate, and the northerns and smallmouth were very active as well.
Fish for dinner again tonight, woohoo!
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