Heading to base camp on Grace in two weeks. EXCITED!! Has anyone been up that way recently? Just curious about portage condition and water level. Taking a friend of mine for his first trip, so any other hidden gems for day trips or special considerations would also be great. Thanks!

Just returned. Water levels are quite high. Mosquito levels were too, until last Friday, when they suddenly disappeared - very strange.

Phoebe is a good day trip, but kind of muddy and slippery. I slipped last Friday and broke my fibula on the way back to Sawbill. Be careful. Made it back though, albeit with essentially a broken leg. Phoebe was really nice. Only about 1 other party on the lake each night. Heard wolves one morning. Try to find a windy campsite though to ditch the skeeters.

Watch out for Alton. Winds were really nasty from the north with 2 foot rollers when we came in last Friday. That was the second most tense crossing I've ever done. The first was a 2 mile paddle down Brule a couple of years ago in a tandem. I did the Alton one this year with the bum leg in a solo boat. Whoa Baby!!!

Tomster - with the inflatable broken leg boot, but with a can of beer in my hand now. Priceless.

We did that route and base camped at Phoebe in late June which was our second trip there (on Phoebe, the site on the little island most toward the middle of the lake is fantastic, btw). On our way out, the bugs on the Alton side of the Beth>Alton portage were horrendous! I've never seen 6 guys load up 3 canoes and get paddling so fast in my life.

On the Beth side of the same portage, there's a cliff just south of the loading area that some buddies were jumping off of on our first trip there in 2009. Not my kind of thing as the thought of what could go wrong overtakes any "WOOHOO!" desire, but I have seen it done.

The portage from Beth to Grace is kind of a bear, but I wouldn't say it was terrible. We took the long way through Ella on the way back to switch it up a bit. Neither of the short ones were bad.

Quark2222, I'm sorry to hear of your misfortune, but kudos to you for shoving on! Based on the map features of that area, and also the marshy areas dictated between Beth and Grace, was mostly was drove my curiosity about the water levels. And good wet-condition shoes are definitely part of the plan! Alton seemed to me that it would be our most likely issue for wind, so we to plan to put in as early in the day as possible hopefully before it comes up for the day.

9th Bearded Infantry, what in your opinion made the portage from Beth to Grace a challenge? Despite it's length, it seems from the map to be relatively (and I do mean relatively lol) flat... Also, I have heard horror stories about the portages to Ella. Can you elaborate any further on your experience there?

Thank you both for your insights!

Beth to grace was just long. Nothing too terrible, just a little long. It was much easier this time around as we double portaged it instead of trying to be badasses and knock it out in one like before.

We didn't have an issues in or out of Ella. Grace to Ella was a little rocky bit not too tough IMO. We actually enjoyed the terrain.