BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
September 07 2024
Entry Point 39 - Baker Lake
Baker Lake entry point allows overnight paddle only. This entry point is supported by Tofte Ranger Station near the city of Tofte, MN. The distance from ranger station to entry point is 26 miles. Access is a boat landing at Baker Lake with a 10-rod portage into Peterson Lake to reach first campsite. This area was affected by blowdown in 1999.
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.
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.
Lilie's first trip
by x2jmorris
Trip Report
Entry Date:
August 26, 2015
Entry Point:
Kawishiwi Lake
Number of Days:
4
Group Size:
8
Trip Introduction:
I had been planning for a while to bring my daughter in for
her first trip this summer. I wanted something easy but I
wanted to actually go all the way in and not just do day
trips.
Report
The plan, since I worked on Wednesday was to get up there as soon as possible which i figured would be 8 PM and then we would have enough light hopefully to find a site and then set up camp. We made it by 745 so we started out ahead of schedule for once. We were able to get the island campsite which is what we really wanted so we wouldn't have to worry about the dogs. There was no wind and it was a nice easy paddle. We had already ate so we kind of stayed up and had some drinks. I brought some beer from Canal Park Brewery (steel growler) for the first night and then off to bed we went. [paragraph break] The next day was just a lazy day….in fact that is what this trip was meant to be, relaxing. Some laid in hammocks, some went fishing, some took care of the baby (8 months), some gathered wood, etc. Well the people who went fishing came back empty handed so I told them I would go out and get some fish. I took my nephew Jason and we went in the channel between two islands and I caught 3 really nice smallmouth and kept one. Got back to the site a few hours later and everyone said that they didn’t like Bass but it was a little late to be telling me that. On this night we all stayed up late hoping to see the Northern Lights but the moon was so bright that you could barely even see the stars. It was like a spot light on our campsite. We drank some whiskey and Rumplemintz and stayed up late anyways. [paragraph break] Since it was so bright, around 1130 or midnight I asked people if they wanted to go out and paddle the lake and my sister was up for the task. Like I said earlier it was so bright out that we could easily navigate without any lights. At one point we got close to shore a long ways away from camp and I asked my sister how creepy it would be to see something standing in the water which freaked her out so we went out a little deeper. As we were paddling it appeared that someone flashed their headlamp at us so my sister flashed hers back. They replied with some more flashing so we slowly headed in their direction. When we got closer we could kind of see them and they told us to come on in, so we did. Once we landed on shore they came up to help. They thought we were looking for a site but we informed that we weren’t. They told us that they were a group of teenagers that built their own canoes through some program. One of the guys was older and no doubt the leader of the group. Well we talked for a while and then off we went back towards camp. Everyone was still awake but tired so we all retired for the night. [paragraph break] Friday was more of the same though this time other people were starting to catch fish. The baby was doing great and sleeping great at night. So far there hadn’t been any problems. Not much happened on this day and it was more of an earlier night. Friday night it stormed like crazy. My sister’s tent collapsed in the middle of the night, the dogs were all scared. However, I did not wake up at all. I guess I just have an easy time sleeping out there. Nothing too bad happened though. That morning we all packed our stuff to head out. [paragraph break] A few things to note…The bugs were almost non-existent but I had a screen house just in case, there was a hornet nest nearby so we had them flying around a lot, island was the best idea for the dogs, and it was Lilie’s first BWCA trip. [paragraph break] 
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discuss this trip report (0 comments) - last post on October 12, 2015