My brother and I will be doing our first trip in the BWCA this year. We put in 09/02 at Baker lake and will be planning on doing the temperance river loop. With entering labor day weekend, is there a benefit of going up temperance river first and returning through sawbill and burnt lake or would it be best to do the opposite? My main concern is how crowded it may be on Labor day weekend with camp sites. My guess is finding a campsite won't be a problem at all during the week after labor day. Thanks in advance for any help.

If you decide to go the Temperance route first, just plan to take the first campsite you see along the way. South and North Temperance Lakes tend to fill up quickly with people coming in from Brule Lake. The lakes to the west (Burnt, Smoke) tend to fill up with folks from Sawbill. Hard to say the demand this year, though. From what I have seen, the crowds have decreased, but that just might have been due to the fire ban.

It's just a guessing game at this point - who knows? Right now there are 2 Baker permits available the end of this week. The next available one is Sept. 16th. Who knows how many will be cancelled?

I don't know your plan or timetable or plan (or anyone else's). Either way has its unknowables. I went in there in 2019 about 2 weeks later than you are entering and we went to South Temperance and found a site without problem. We entered on a Sunday and we started early.

I would probably head for there and if sites are full on Kelly and one was open on Jack I might take it since the 2 on Jack are the only ones between Kelly and Temperance. That would make for a longer second day if you're aiming for Cherokee then. If you go on and the Temperance Lakes are full . . . ? It's a tough haul from Sitka to Cherokee. Or a long return to Jack.

Sawbill can be busy and so can the Fire Lakes; when I looped back around from Cherokee to Sawbill and back to Baker (exit on Sat.) many sites were occupied but I took an open one on Burnt. We exited at Sawbill last weekend in Sept. 2014 from Zenith and planned to stay on Kelso, but all sites were occupied until the one by the Smoke portage. It was a very warm and sunny weekend.

There are no sites between Cherokee and Sawbill so that's a consideration but I had no trouble getting one in 2019. I think it's a game-time decision.