I just wanted to post a warning about this portage. We put in at south Hegman Lake and planeed to exit via Mudro-Picket-Nels and then hike the road back to South Hegman to get our car. Our map showed a short portage from Picket to a river/marsh area and then another portage to Nels. We made the short portage out of Picket to find that the river/marsh area had effectively become a giant mud pit. There was a trickel of water coming through the area, but it was not enough to float our canoe. The ground through the area was too soft to walk on. I do not know when the water levels changed, but there did not seem to be any signs of a portage around this area. Our only choice would have been to bushwhack our own path around the marsh area, which would have probably been about a mile plus or to go back to Mudro and hike the road back around to where our car was. I am guessing this would have been about 9 miles. So if your plans involve doing the portage between Picket and Nels lake I would verify that this route is traversable before hand.

I was in there 2 years ago and it was just as you say.