We're planning an October trip from Ely to Robinson and Sarah Lakes. We've been told the portages south and east out of Robinson are difficult to find. These are the ones that would take us to unnamed lakes and on to either Nub/Kett or Tuck Lakes. How do we find the portages and which way is more scenic?

I'm a little unclear from your post where you are starting and ending. But assuming you want to travel south from Robinson to Basswood, this link will take you to the segment of one of my trip reports where we went from Robinson through Kett to Basswood. It mentions where to find some of the harder-to-find portages along that route. It's a nice route.

I have not taken the portage between Robinson and the unnamed lake that is between Robinson and Tuck (although I intend to remedy that by going through there in the next couple weeks). But I don't believe it is hard to find, my understanding is that it is by the river flowage coming from unnamed into Robinson, which you can hear from the Robinson point campsite that we stayed at for the trip in the report above. Sarah-Tuck-Unnamed-Robinson should be a pretty fast and easy route between Sarah and Robinson.

We are looking at the two ways south from Robinson to Basswood. We had heard that both portages out of Robinson were very hard to find, especially heading south.

Thanks for the wonderful report!!! Awesome photos!! I take about 1000 per week and we just did a two week trip to Woodland Caribou Prov. Park last September.

I've been through Nub and Kett and can tell you that the portages are not hard to find IF you use a Chrismar map. The portages are wrong on the Fisher Map.

The following page from an old trip report might help (though it's mostly redundant with Ho Ho's more thorough description).

Day 16 - Robinson Lake to Basswood Lake

Also, as Marsonite said, the Chrismar Quetico map has the portages marked correctly.

As I recall, the only portage that seemed tricky for me to find was the one heading east out of Nub. The portage rises very steeply at the start, and because you're staring into the face of the rise on approach, it just doesn't seem like a normal place for a portage. It doesn't help that these portages are lightly used and a little overgrown and brushy too.

The last portage into Kett is the most difficult to see from the lake. It begins on a solid slab of rock that holds a little-used campsite (or at least a fire ring). It is almost directly across the lake from the previous portage's finish.

Love that short steep uphill portage from Nub to the unnamed prior to Kett....one of my favorites in the Quetico...not a fan of the ultra rocky take-out from Nub. Also, if you've got an extra 15 minutes, don't forget to catch the 10-14 inch largemouth on almost every cast along the shores of the unnamed lake (pond) before portaging downhill to Kett...

KCMO,

Yes, the only difficulty I ever had was finding the portage from Nub to the unnamed pond before Kett Lake. It starts where you hear a trickle of water entering Nub Lake. Otherwise it is very difficult to to find. After an initial flat section, the portage becomes a goat trail before leveling off just before the pond. The pond seemed to come alive with fish jumping when I set my canoe in! I had my fishing equipment put away otherwise I would have wet a line. The portage from the pond to Kett is as steep downhill as it was uphill coming to the pond. The last time I went through it had rained all morning and to save a possible disaster I dropped my canoe on the steepest downhill section and let it slide down to the bottom. Discretion is the better part of valor!