BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
October 03 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.
Kayaking Baker Lake to Temperance River
Entry Date:
October 01, 2025
Entry Point:
Baker Lake
Number of Days:
1
Group Size:
2
Baker to Peterson portage: The Baker side landing is rocky and not an easy spot to disembark. The Peterson side is a flat, gradual landing. The portage is short, a bit rocky but wide.
Peterson to Kelly 'portage': this consisted of getting out and dragging our kayaks about 5 feet over a flat rock. The water seemed a bit low so we wondered if it was higher if you'd be able to just paddle over it. There was a portage path too, maybe it would be necessary in higher water, it was very short as well.
On the way back we didn't portage at all and went down through the 'rapids' it wasn't smooth and we got momentarily stuck several times and had to scoot ourselves through but made it.
The Temperance river is fairly wide and more an extension of the lake than a river. We went to the end of the river and did not do the portage into Jack Lake. We had the wind with us on the way in, and we like to go slow, it took us about 2.5 hours. The way back the wind was against us and had picked up, it required a bit more steady and strong paddling than we prefer but we still made good time.
We didn't see anyone on the way in but on the way back one site was setting camp and someone was fishing on Baker.