BWCA Portage 33

This is a nasty brushy overgrown mess without much trail to follow in points, at least when we were there. We searched around next to the rapids for a bit before back tracking and finding the landing on the north side. If you keep very focused, the trail can be followed with relative ease before running into the beaver pond. We lost the trail on the way back in the brush. The trail on the other side of the beaver pond is a bit of choose your own adventure. Which rock faces and boulder piles would you like to tip-toe through. We eventually made it around and found a decent enough landing. This is where things really began to feel like a PMA.

We found this to be two separate portages with a very short paddle in the middle. We did look to see if the trails connected, a large beaver pond north of the river seems to have swallowed any possible trail. The west portage is the coolest portage I've ever been on. There are cairns marking the way around the bay at the end of Sterling Lake and you have to climb (or rappel) a large rock face to traverse it. Taking into account the two portage sections, this is the most 'technically difficult' portage I have done. The portage trails are still relatively easy to follow, though they are quite overgrown.