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.
Bizarre event on Ima Lake - photos added.....
Entry Date:
June 07, 2012
Entry Point:
Lake One
Exit Point:
Snowbank Lake Only (28)
Number of Days:
8
Group Size:
4
Well at this site Laurel comes running back from the toilet and says “There is a duck in the toilet.” We all assumed she was joking but she assured us she was not. My natural assumption at that point was that it was dead and someone had thrown it in there for some reason. But, no, she assured us it was very much alive. Up to the toilet we trooped and sure enough, there was a live merganser trapped in a foul mess that it had thoroughly trampled down. It had obviously been there for a while.
Now the dilemma – do we paddle off and leave the duck to her fate, or do we figure out how to get her out. If we stay, she has to come out as we are surely not using a toilet with a duck in it! Over lunch we discussed several options for getting the duck out, none of which seemed to keep us adequately separated from a crap covered bird, and a large one at that. Using a noose to pull the bird out was discarded early in the discussion as the thought of a mad merganser covered in crap flapping around on the end of a rope with one of us on the other end did not seem like a sound idea. In the end we decided on dropping a large trash bag over the bird to allow one of us (this is the first time in my life where I have not been happy to have long arms…) grab the bird and pull it out. I had calculated the probability of carrying out the assignment without coming in direct contact with the pooped bird as slim to none, but was prepared for my fate.
Standing around the toilet getting up my nerve I had a flash of common sense and told John to grab the other side of the toilet and lift. We had not gotten it two feet into the air when the bird blasted out of there and half flew, half ran the 100 yards to the water. Why we did not think of that simple solution right away I don’t know. Perhaps the complete implausibility of the whole situation clouded our minds. Anyway, we ran down to the water and watched the merganser splash and dive in the water like a kid at a water park for the first time. Over and over the bird dove and splashed until it was out of sight. I can only imagine the relief it felt to be released from that foul den.
Now as to how it got in there we can only speculate. I suppose someone could have put it in there as a nasty joke but they would have had to catch it first; no easy feat. I do know that mergansers are a cavity nesting duck. So my best guess is that it was looking for a cavity and saw the black hole of the toilet and went in for a look. Once in, it could not climb out nor open its wings enough to fly out so found itself trapped until we found it. I can only hope that it is more careful next time.
I have been going to the Boundary Waters annually for about 15 years and must say that I have generally avoided looking down into the pit toilets. After this event, however, I suspect I will now always look down even with the knowledge that I will never see another duck inside a toilet. It just seems prudent.
