BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
April 26 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.
Sawbill to Phoebe
Entry Date:
July 26, 2015
Entry Point:
Sawbill Lake
Number of Days:
5
Group Size:
2
Monday, July 27th We stayed on Phoebe all day today and didn't see another person. Went out and did a lot of fishing. First cast caught a 16 inch walleye. It turned out to be the only walleye all trip. We caught a lot of small mouth bass but almost all were 10 inches or under. Never caught so many small small mouth. We scouted some other campsites and some looked like they haven't been used all year. 
Tuesday, July 28th We decided to head back toward Sawbill and break up our route on the way back. The portages were very busy this morning and we followed a group to Grace. This time we didn't miss any of the portages and it went much better. We stopped for a while on Grace and debated moving on to Beth or staying on Grace. The weather was windy, overcast and light drizzle so a good day for portaging but we decided to stay on Grace for the night. We took the peninsula campsite and it was excellent. Nice landing, great furniture, and very clean. One group came in to check out our site but they were only people to paddle by all day. Fished again but again just very small bass. 
Wednesday, July 29th Headed back to Alton today for our last night. I wouldn't say our portages were any easier but we did have the weight distributed a lot better in our packs. It was very windy today but luckily the wind was at our back all day. We paddled up the western shore of Alton and took the 5th site. All the sites were much more worn than the campsites on Grace and Phoebe. We went out fishing later and didn't catch a thing. By the time we fished, all of the campsites on the west side were occupied and we could hear voices most of the night.
Thursday, July 30th We broke camp in the morning and the wind was howling out the west. We felt bad for anyone heading out today. Got back to Sawbill and got everything unloaded. We were driving around 11 am. 
Overall I really like this route. The only problem was the fishing. All of the bass were so stunted. I checked the MN DNR website and the average weight of bass on Grace is .7 lbs. The privacy was great though. I can't wait to come up again. 