BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog
July 13 2025
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.
Beaver Attack
Entry Date:
August 31, 2023
Entry Point:
Crocodile River
Number of Days:
4
Group Size:
2
We left Duluth around 830 (after my night shift) and started heading up the shore. I napped most of the way while my buddy Casey drove. I had already done the grocery shopping, gotten bait, and got our permit, so we didn't need to stop until Grand Marias. There was a few items we needed there, so after a couple of quick stops and the last toilet use for a few days, we were off up the gunflint. There was some construction in Grand Marais, which through us for a loop back down to HWY 61, but after 15-20 minutes of confusion, we found the Gunflint.
East Bearskin was a short trip up the trail, and the landing was ready for us. It was noon, and we only had one portage to do, so we were in a great spot. The weather was BEAUTIFUL; it was sunny and we even had a tail wind in our favor. We ran into a couple guys leaving crocodile after fishing for the morning and catching a TON of very large perch. Excited for the fishing, we reached the portage. The portage from East Bearskin to Crocodile consisted of some serious elevation. It was not fun. Maybe we aren't in the best shape, but at our midlife age portaging up this hills is not something we had on our bucket list, but I guess we will check it off!
Our targeted site on Crocodile was taken, so we chose to journey to the East side of the lake and took the first of two on that end. A super nice site, but a shallower and weedier side of the lake. We set up camp quick, gathered some firewood, made a cocktail (our typical vodka + crystal light), and headed out fishing. It was immediately obvious what most of the fishing would be like for us, as we caught an endless amount of little perch and very small walleye. We ate tacos for dinner (our tradition despite the amount of food we have to pack for it), and fished off shore as the sun set. We were ill-prepared with light up bobbers, but It wasn't long before Casey had a nice walleye hooked. He got it close to shore before the hook was spit out, but we both got a look at the guessing 20+ walleye. We fished for awhile longer, but just caught more small perch. After a nice fire and a sighting of Elon Musk's Starlink, we slept well. 
