BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
July 04 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.
Vougers of God
Entry Date:
July 16, 2007
Entry Point:
Lizz and Swamp Lakes
Number of Days:
5
Group Size:
7
We set of in Poplar Lake and entered the Boundary Waters through Lizz Lake. We went Through Caribou Lake and down into Horseshoe Lake. In Horseshoe is were we spent our frist night.
We set of to a late start we went over to Gaskin Lake and down to Winchell Lake crossing that and going down into Wanihigan. We continued down to Grassy Lake and into Brule. We traveled through Brule until we reached our campsite.
We set upward today and went into South Cone Lake into Middle Cone. Continueing into North Cone Lake. Then we went over to Cliff Lake and up into Winchell Lake. Coninueing upward we went int Omega Lake were we stayed for the night.
We set of into Henson Lake were we continued into Pillsbery Lake. Over to Allen and then to Horseshoe Lake. We head up to Caribou Lake were we spent out last night in the Boundary Waters.
This was our finally time in the Boundary Waters we exited Caribou and went into Lizz Lake and that was the end of our time in the Boundary waters. We continued through Lizz and entered Poplar Lake were our trip was over. We got to see our friends from the other group and here about there trip it was truely a treat.