BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
May 03 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 to Sawbill
Entry Date:
June 15, 2023
Entry Point:
Brule Lake
Exit Point:
Sawbill Lake (38)
Number of Days:
5
Group Size:
2
We've been actively monitoring this message board for several months during our prep process. Our gear was checked, analyzed, and organized. We also decided to upgrade some of the 30 year old gear and add some stuff based on what we've read here. New tent, stick stove, and bug shirt were among the new stuff.
We opted to leave our Spirit II at home and we rented a Minnesota II from Sawbill in order to save us from hauling, it from and back to PA. We camped at Sawbill the night before and had them shuttle us the next morning to Brule.
Our plan was to launch on Brule and evaluate wind conditions in order to decide camp choices. Our itinerary took us towards S Temperance and down the Temperance river, Weird, Jack, Kelly, Burnt, Smoke, and exit on Sawbill where our vehicle was parked.
The wind on Brule wasn't bad but we weren't finding an acceptable campsite so we pushed on to S Temperance and we snagged campsite 908. We loved that site so much that we decided to stay there 2 nights.
The fire ban went into effect just before we launched, so the Firebox was left behind and we took our MSR XGK stove. Unfortunately, I was so intent on wanting to use the stick stove that I neglected to pack the stove pump for the XGK (glitch #1)...idiot! So with the fire ban in place we were relegated to no-cook meals. We normally make very basic meals so not having a stove didn't turn out to be that much of a problem.
We did confirm that the bug reports were not overstated, at least for the mosquitos. There were no flies, and few no-see-ums, but the skeeters were thick. We were pretty well prepared to deal with them, though. Permethrin clothes, 30% Deet (which we used very sparingly, a little Picaridin, and Thermacell...plus the new bug shirts.
Glitch#2... The Thermacell worked for exactly 1 evening and then for some unknown reason, decided it would not light and I have no idea why. We got home and it works just fine. The bug shirts were the best $95 that I ever spent. I'm not sure that we could have endured the mosquitos along the Temperance river, they were that bad. We developed a routine of getting in/out of the tent...2-person "speed-zipping", followed up with "hunt and kill" the ones that snuck into the tent. The trips to the privy were the worst...too much exposed skin if you catch my drift. Our trip in June 2011 had almost zero bugs. This one was the exact opposite, but we handled it pretty well.
One of our goals was to catch smallmouth and I would rate the fishing as fair. But I wouldn't classify myself as highly skilled. I'm pretty much a one-dimensional fisherman...love to throw topwater lures. And we didn't always take the time to rig and fish some interesting spots. But no complaints. The bass we caught were all strong and healthy and moderate sized. They were fun.
Probably the biggest highlight of our trip was seeing a cow and calf moose swim past our camp on S Temperance in the fog at daybreak. We we preparing breakfast when we heard unusual splashing in the water and it turned out to be the cow entering the lake from the adjacent island. Soon behind her swam her calf. The scene thru the fog and rising sun was breathtaking! Our camera is less than high tech but we did snap a few pics. I can only imagine the quality photos a competent photographer with decent equipment could have produced.
We had a turtle hanging around our campsite (#928) on Jack lake. Turned out that she was there to lay eggs right outside of our tent. She spent hours digging the hole among the rocky soil. We watched her from inside the tent until dark. Then, just as we were falling asleep, we heard something inside our tent vestibule. I shined the light to see the turtle walking across our empty dry bags. And then she attempted to squeeze UNDER the tent floor! I haven't a clue what she was trying to do, but we kept blocking her from getting under from the inside with our hands. We weren't about to unzip the door because there were 10,000 mosquitos ready to drink our blood. Camp 928 was by far the worst for bugs.
We also saw lots of beavers, and a few eagles. Saw no bear or other wildlife of note.
The portages were not too bad for being a 65 year old retiree. We double trip.
Overall, a good trip. We are already trying to plan a return trip.
