Okay, new info on the Crab Lake saga.

The owner, Mike Loisel is going to put up a large steel gate across the portage blocking the trail. And a sign saying "you are trespassing" if you go around the gate.

So Mark Van Avery (Forest Service supervisor)says;

1. Still no Crab Lake 'new' permits being reserved for now.

2. You can try getting in from Tamarack Creek (south west end of Burntside) and then taking the 2 mile portage into Clark Lake.

3. You will be contacted if you have a Crab Lake permit (in the order by date of reservation, they were reserved) to see if you want to make a different entry point for your date. If there is nothing really open, they are considering adding one more permit to 5 different entries; Lake One (but no camping on Lakes 1 - 4), Little Gabbro (no camping on Little Gabbro, Gabbro or Bald Eagle) Moose River North (no camping on Nina Moose), Mudro (no camping on Horse Lake), Trout Lake (no extra restrictions, 'cause who really wants to go over to Crab this way anyway!)

4. The state of Minnesota is not supporting the Forest Service, so it doesn't look like any court action will be taken or followed up on.

5. The Forest Service is going to do an Environmental Impact study on if there is a possibility of moving the first part of the portage just southwest of Mike L's property and then have it 'swing' back over to the main portage. This would make it a bit longer and the first third would not be flat anymore.

Any more info that comes my way, I'll post it here and on some other sites for you all.