Hi Liberator.

db's advice above is all right on.  (of course it is, he is in charge here!   ;)  )

You may not get a lot of BWCA advice on this forum, since most of the regulars are Quetico people.  And I won't be of a lot of help when it comes to fishing, as we have many BW trips but we don't fish!  Also, for the past couple of decades we have really preferred the Gunflint side of the park.

As to your time of year, if you can tolerate a few bugs I think June is a great time for a group of teacher-types to get away (a retired teacher here) for a variety of reasons, and you will find the park less crowded and less trampled by far in June than in August.  The down side is that if you want to swim, the water is colder, obviously.

The Beymer books are a great resource.  They describe the portages in limited detail, give paddling mileage, and outline many different possibilities of loops and routes.  While we have probably never done a route from one of the books exactly as shown, they are a great research tool for planning.

The very popular Lake One, Hudson, Insula, Alice route is popular for a reason.  The lakes are beautiful, the portages are short, and there are options to head off to other wonderful spots (Boulder, Adams,) or even up to Gabi.  Moose Lake entry and heading up to Knife is another popular possibility.

For small lakes, we have enjoyed the Gunflint entry points of Poplar/Lizz, East Bearskin, Clearwater which give access to loops with beautiful small lakes.  Also, Cross River and heading down to Gordon and Cherokee (my personal favorite spot.)  And, while we haven't done the Little Indian Sioux personally, we have friends who say that is their favorite route, and the small lakes in the vicinity of Ge-be-on-e-quet, just south of Lac la Croix are also very beautiful and can be quite secluded in June.

If you do a second post here, you will have access, as db said, to trip reports.  Also, if you go to bwca.com there are many trip reports posted for trips into the bwca and those may give you some good ideas.  Lots of fishermen there, too.

Have fun with your planning!  Best wishes for a great trip in 2010!