BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
April 24 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.
Brule Lake May 2003
Entry Date:
May 24, 2003
Entry Point:
Brule Lake
Number of Days:
4
Group Size:
4
Our trip started off with a very bright and warm late May day. It was the kind of day in the spring that you feel the sun beat right through your life jacket and want to paddle without it. However on this trip I had my son, age 9, navigating the front of my 18 footer Grumman and I wanted him to know that even though the air felt warm, the water was still plenty cold and we needed to take the necessary precautions (I had also promised Mom that he would wear it)
My partner and his son,age 11, were paddling his new toy on this trip. He had acquired a used Wenonah Minnesota II Kevlar canoe from Sawtooth Outfitters in Tofte. The canoe was in decent shape though you could tell it had seen it share of rocks in the past. We put out from the landing 41 and started down the lake heading north. One of the first island sites we found empty was not only vacant of people but void of trees as well. We thought about this and the fact that most of the sites we found had people and decided to leave part of out gear here while we looked around the lake. Brule is such a big lake that we didn't go too far when realized we would have a very long paddle back and forth if we did this. So we went back and got our stuff and took to the west looking for a better site.
We found a site on the north side in Cone Bay. The site was very large and it was secluded away from the main lake. We had awesome sunrises and we hiked up the cliffs behind it and had a very rewarding view of Brule Lake. We found some fish among the islands in Cone Bay and did some exploring along the shore near fish island.
One thing I will never bring on a canoe trip again is my home made telescope. I thought it would be fun to build a reflector type telescope over the winter and when I had it finished it was a lot of fun and kind of a novelty to use. I thought (and was right) that in the BWCA the stars are so much brighter because of the reduced city lights. The telescope proved to be very entertaining however it was kind of hard to use because also the BWCA is known for bugs and they were in full swing during this warm May weekend. We had a really great time and I will go back to Brule again some day. I will probably go to the eastern end of the lake or make it part of a larger loop route. I do not think I would make it my only destination unless I only had a few days to spend in the wilderness.
