I finally got around to inspecting the baffle and cleaning the top part of my firebox. After 2 seasons, here is what I discovered. I also wanted to pull the baffle so I could clean the bottom 3 feet of my liner (interesting bend). First, I had to remove the burn tubes. After that, I had to pull the front baffle support plate. Following this, I had to slide out the top 3 front fire brick. After this, I was able to pull the baffle plate forward and get my hands on the bypass damper assembly and additional firebrick. I can't tell you how many times I had to run to the sink to wash my hands and or turn the shop vac on to clean as I worked. In terms of creosote, I thought what I found was not too much and was "soot" like. Through out this process, I noticed that the baffle plate has a slight "belly" in it and one of the firebrick that sits atop the baffle is cracked in half. I will be contacting Travis industries about this.
