BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
September 07 2024
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.
Basecamp in Malberg area
Entry Date:
June 02, 2018
Entry Point:
Kawishiwi Lake
Number of Days:
8
Group Size:
2
We drove up from Iowa, and it poured from the Twin Cities all the way to Tofte. Seeing this would be the case, we stopped in Duluth and pulled under a parking garage to repack our gear without getting everything wet. (it was 38 degrees as the SE wind was coming off the lake) We got a few last groceries at the store and headed up the north shore in the driving rain. Got our Northwind 17 from Sawtooth and supper from the Coho Cafe across the road. (we recommend both of those now) Since it was still pouring on our drive up the Sawbill trail, our plan changed. We had a campsite reserved at Sawbill for the night and were going to drive to the EP Sunday morning. We instead drove to the EP, all the campsites were filled with what looked like darn-near permanent campers so we slept in the truck in the EP lot. (not great)
Daylight couldn’t come fast enough as neither of us slept real well in the reclined seats of my truck. Needless to say, we were the first ones to push off from 37 that day since we used headlamps to get started and were awake since about 4am. We were on the water around 5:30am in a gentle mist/haze and no wind. (forecast was for 20mph winds from NW later) Our goal was Malberg as we’d read that this could be done in a solid day, and we like to push hard on the first day while single portaging especially given the forecast. The paddle to Polly was uneventful, both our first times through a burn area. We were paddling on Polly by 10am, hadn’t seen anyone the whole paddle until Polly, and made it to our campsite (near Louse R. mouth) around 11:30am after seeing the narrows site was taken. Mission accomplished and then some, lunch on Malberg. 
Today was sunny and very windy (start of a theme) and was nice to dry everything out from the mist of the day before. We fished some, found some nice smallies on top water lures and explored Malberg a bit. We tried dehydrating our own canned pasta sauce before the trip, it rehydrated beautifully and was one of the best spaghetti dishes I’ve had. 
We set out for a day trip down the Kawishiwi R. and back to Malberg. (counter-clockwise) Very cool areas, some great fishing, a few easy portages, and overall a great day. The portage back into the NW part of Malberg wasn’t my favorite. We stopped at a few campsites to check them out and snack, I’ll rate those on the maps page. Tortilla pizza was a new adventure at supper, tomato paste in a tube plus parmesan cheese and precooked bacon were the ticket over the fire. 
Sunny and windy again, we decide to take an afternoon trip away from the wind up the Louse River. The whole time we’d been camped right next to it and thought the portage on all the maps started on a large rock in our view from camp. (though we’d yet to see anyone go in or out) We were wrong, portage starts up the river a bit. We took it and it was overgrown and nasty. We fished our way up the river, catching some fish at narrows and turned around at Frond and came back down. We skipped the portage back into Malberg as it was a very small beaver dam and some easy rapids. (now I know why the portage is overgrown) 
Our last full day on Malberg, we plan a big day trip up to Pan for some fishing. We get to Pan and there are canoes all over fishing. One nice man in a solo and large beard said they were doing alright but we decided to skip the crowds and keep going since I’d heard there were lakers in Makwa. A few more lakes and portages and we had Makwa to ourselves. We ate a quick snack on an island and cobbled together some deep-fishing rigs, including a little cleo I’d just ordered from Cabelas. Our first drift/troll run I caught a nice 18” fish and our day was made. Neither one of us had ever caught one in the BW before. I have no idea how deep we were or how deep my lure was. We trolled all the way around the lake and got nothing. Came back to the original spot and caught 3 more, all fish on the little cleo including this 20” laker/splake. We kept one since it’s jaw was in bad shape after getting the hooks out. Back to camp to figure out how to cook and eat this new fish. (it was amazing) Side Note: On our way back, we fished in Panhandle a bit (not worth it) and missed the portage landing. We found what looked like one at the very SE corner of the lake. Landed, started down the trail and it was very overgrown and rough, not what we recalled doing earlier in the day. But it was still a trail and basically impossible for me to turn around with the canoe so we kept going. Many twists, turns, and bangs with the canoe we were at the same Pan landing with the wonderful sandy beach we’d been at in the morning. Turns out there are 2 portages between Pan and Panhandle, DO NOT take the eastern one. If you are on Pan, head straight north from the landing, don’t go right as there are 2 trails. If you’re on Panhandle, don’t paddle along what seems to be a huge beaver dam/embankment to the SE corner. 
Friday morning we started early back toward Polly so we would be closer to our exit on Saturday morning. We fished the pool below the rapids coming from Koma for a bit, largest fish of the trip from there. (still swimming) We paddled around Polly for a while and saw a bunch of people and occupied sites. We knew it was a busy lake and started getting a little nervous but found a nice site that we believe some kayakers had just left that we passed on Polly that were headed to Malberg. Set up camp, fished some, saw an otter, and had a nice sunny breezy day. 
We were on the water by 7 and in a light rain just like our trip in, we were wet heading out with no rain all week otherwise. We were back to the truck before 10 and it looked like 2 groups were unloading at the landing so we just single portaged to our truck in the lot to get out of the way. On every portage this trip, one of us double packed and the other had the canoe and a pack. We traded who did what, she carried as much as I did which is usual but I'm spoiled. Overall a great trip, new area, good fishing, and good weather. We’re planning our next one already. 