BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
October 04 2025
Entry Point 50 - Cross Bay Lake
Number of Permits per Day: 3
Elevation: 1670 feet
Latitude: 48.0760
Longitude: -90.8222
Cross Bay Lake - 50
Entry Point 50: Cherokee, Sawbill, Gillis Lake Voyage
Entry Date:
September 06, 2025
Entry Point:
Cross Bay Lake
Number of Days:
8
Group Size:
1
September 6-13, 2025, I paddled the Cherokee, Sawbill, Gillis Lake Voyage. The first day I set out at Entry Point 50 on the Cross River. I was aiming to camp at Long Island Lake. It is about 8 miles and took me about 4 and a half hours. Highlights were when a pair of swans fly in and land right in front of me. All the loons on Long Island Lake were entertaining. Pretty sure in the evening they were having a little party.
Second day was even easier than the first day. I was aiming to camp on Cherokee Lake. From Long Island Lake, it is only about 6 miles and you have few portages. Although you may encounter some surprise mini portages due to beaver dams. It was a really beautiful day. Really enjoyed paddling on Long Island River. I camped at the south end of Cherokee Lake. Highlight was waking at night and hearing the howling of the wolves.
When the whole loop is over 60 miles, at some point you have to have some longer days. Day 3 was more work than the first two days. I planned to get to Sawbill Lake or Alton Lake. The beginning was great. I enjoyed paddling on Cherokee Creek and the smaller lakes like Skoop and Ada. Eventually I got to Sawbill Lake and it is massive. Unfortunately, the wind picked up and was pretty much straight into my face as I paddled south. It was a grind. I decided to keep pushing on to Alton to see if by the time I got there the weather would be a bit nicer. It did seem that the weather was improving when I got to Alton so I picked a site and set up camp. As I was setting up camp and thinking about dinner, the weather turned for the worse and it seemed like a storm was coming. It was a pretty good one with rain, thunder and lightening. (It took me 7 hours to cover the ~9 miles.)
After it rained all night, it eventually stopped and left a thick fog over the lake. The plan was to paddle to Phoebe or Knight Lake. I ended up camping at Knight to try and shorten some of the coming days since my first days were kind of short. The camp site at Knight lake is pretty cool, kind of tucked away. I hadn't really been fishing much, but I did fish a bit there. Didn't land anything, but got more bites and almost landed a couple before they spit out the hook. (It took me about 5 and a half hours to go 7 miles. Longest portage was 280 rods.)
Day 5 was great. It was beautiful weather and I got to see a moose. The plan was to go to Lake Polly or Koma Lake. Along the way you pass through Hazel Lake and as I was paddling across it I heard a big splash. I thought there was a camp site across the lake and that someone threw their canoe in or something. Eventually I see something crossing the lake. Initially I assumed it was someone canoeing, but it just didn't seem right. Eventually, I realized that it was actually a moose swimming straight across the lake. I didn't realize they were such good swimmers. After that I got to the portage and as I was standing there getting ready to go I see a wolf come around the corner on the portage. It sees me and immediately darts into the woods. I thought it was big and I thought it was a wolf. Maybe I am wrong and it was a coyote. Not sure. I thought it was too big for a coyote....
I ended up camping at Lake Polly since I didn't feel like doing 3 more portages to Koma. Lake Polly must be a popular lake because I was seeing people go by all afternoon. Maybe I should have pushed on to Koma.
Day 6 was a big day with 9 miles to cover and 11 portage of 565 total rods. It was a very beautiful section with a lot of time spent on the Kawishiwi River. Probably my favorite section in terms of scenery on the whole loop. I am more of a creek and river guy than a big lake person. Going for a swim at Makwa where I camped and laying out on the sun warmed boulders was amazing. (It took me 7 hours to get to Makwa.)
I originally planned to cover most of the loop in 7 days and then just camp at one of the last lakes one more night so I could get out in the morning, probably Gillis or Bat Lake. But this last day it sprinkled on and off all day and it came down just a little bit harder as the day wore on. It was warm out and the rain didn't really bother me much. I just didn't fancy getting to camp and sitting around not doing much because of the rain. So I just kept pushing on.
The biggest lake and the most work is paddling Little Saganaga Lake. It is a large lake, pretty beautiful, but at least at the beginning the wind was a little rough. Fortunately I was able to paddle on the north side of the islands and that blocked most of it.
You go through some lakes that show signs of having been through a forest fire, but it kind of looks cool with all the new growth and the dead skeleton like trees sticking out.
I was in a good groove so with the rain coming and going I thought about just completing the loop today, but when I got to Brant Lake where the last campsites are it started to thunder. So I took one of the campsites and quickly set up camp. It rained hard and stormed with thunder and lightening all night. It was a good decision, because if I had been trying to paddle and portage the last two miles through that it would not have been fun. And by the time I got to Brant Lake I had already gone 13 miles so I probably would have started getting tired too.
So the truly last day, day eight, was really easy. I just had to wait for some of the thickest fog I have ever seen to burn off so I could navigate. Just a couple of miles to Round Lake where there is a boat launch on the north side of the lake. From there you have a mile walk back to the Entry Point 50 parking lot.
It is a bit of work going solo, you can probably make much better time if you are in a tandem. I am not super into fishing, but from all the people fishing it seems like there must be some decent fishing on a lot of these lakes. For me, the highlights were all the wildlife and the really scenic paddling through the creeks and rivers. I really enjoyed the trip and this route.