I am wondering about the condition of the burned areas, esp in and around Sarah, McIntyre, Argo. I have avoided going through that area.

I am headed this weekend to the Man Chain and around to Kawnipi or Louisa but notice all the permits from the south were open as of the other day and would consider changing my route. However, don't have much of of interest of seeing lake after lake burned to the ground with no place to even camp. I have looked at the maps, but first hand observations are much more accurate.

Any information would be appreciated. Thanks

The south part of Sarah is green and nice and everything we went through from North Bay to there. We could see burned areas to the north of the pinched point site about 2 miles from the portage from Side Lake.

A solo paddler came through while we were on Sarah and said the areas he had come through from the north were torched. I think McIntyre was particularly bad. There may be a few pockets of green further north on Sarah, we didn't paddle up that way.

I stayed 4 nights on the excellent McIntyre Island sight and most everything around it was green and basically untouched. The middle campsite on Mac had burned, but the southern site straight west of the portage from Sarah was fine. The portages from Sarah had burned but had been cleared and were useable and marked by the portage maintenance crews. The small lake between Mac and Brent was burned badly, but the fish where happy and willing to bite.

We had a great week, and saw not a single group on McIntyre the whole week. Fishing was outstanding, though walleye tough to get. Actually caught two Lake Trout using crankbaits that ran no deeper than 10'.