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.
Late September Sawbill loop
Entry Date:
September 22, 2019
Entry Point:
Sawbill Lake
Number of Days:
6
Group Size:
4
Sawbill-Smoke-Burnt-Flame-Burnt 5 miles, 4 hours of travel
We put in at Sawbill around 10 am. The temps were mid 60s with light winds. We traveled through Smoke and Burnt and went to scout the lone campsite on Flame. It was occupied. On one of the portages we saw around 12? people but they were all heading out. We ended up staying on Burnt. The afternoon brought rain showers off and on but in the evening the wind died down, the rain stopped, and we had a nice fire. We all brought steaks to cook on the grate and enjoyed and nice night. An interesting note: All of the permits (14) were booked for Sawbill today. This was surprising but we neither passed nor were overtaken by anybody. The crowds at Sawbill were minimal. Maybe they arrived later. 
Burnt-Kelly-Jack-Weird-South Temperance-North Temperance 12 miles, 7 hours, 682 rods.
We woke up to clear skies and calm winds. Our plan was to head north and see what happens. The paddle through Kelly was very scenic with the clouds reflecting off of the lily pad water. We were passed up by a solo paddler, landoftheskytintedwater. He was the only person we would see on our paddle today, besides occupied campsites. We debating stopping on the Weird Lake campsite around 2 pm but decided to press on and take the southern site on S. Temp. It ended up being occupied so were pressed on to N. Temp. and took the southern site for the next two nights.
We took a layover day. I am fairly confident we heard moose in the morning. It sounded like a weird cow? Around 9 am when I was on the pooper, I swear I heard a bull moose fight. Grunting and the clacking of antlers? I really wish we would of investigated this further but it ended after about 10 minutes. Winds kicked up the afternoon with thunder to the south. The storms stayed away and by sunset the winds had died down and we ended the night with a nice fire.
North Temperance-Sitka-Cherokee 5 miles, 3.5 hours, 245 rods
Around 3 am, the winds became intense. My tarp was pushing against my hammock and I didn't sleep much. At 1030 we packed up camp. It began to rain to immediately. We threw on our rain gear off we went. I had read about the Sitka portage and it lived up to its reputation. Its 140 rods and 30 rods or so of it is flat. Very hilly. That being said, the footing is good and there are only 1 or 2 tricky spots. It gets the heart rate up but its not too difficult. The winds were still whipping out of the west when we reached Cherokee and we were heading right into it. It wasn't the easiest paddle but we ended up on a peninsula site on the west shoreline which was suprisingly protected from the wind. It rained steadily throughout the afternoon so we spent some time in our tents/hammocks. It got nice at night and we had a nice fire. 
Cherokee-Skoop-Ada-Sawbill
We left Cherokee Lake around 10 am to head to Sawbill for the last night. The wind picked up once again. Our plan was to stay on the north side of Sawbill lake. The paddle down Cherokee creek is always one of my favorite paddles. We went in stealth mode hoping for one more chance to see a moose. No moose spotted this trip. We met 3 groups today heading north coming up for a long weekend. We scouted a couple sites on Sawbill and took a site on the east side protected by an island from a west wind. We went out fishing for a while and caught some small pike. We ended the night by solving all the worlds problems around a campfire. 
A steady rain arrived again during the evening and we ended up packing up wet. Thankfully, the rain held off for our paddle and we made it back to Sawbill in about an hour. Overall, it was great trip. My only complaints were too much rain and too little fish. Can't wait to come back.