Monday, May 25, 2009 Travel day. Decided to move on this morning. Was a cold overcast day, nothing like the previous day. Figured I camp at either West Fern, Powell, or French? Depending on campsite.

As I found out on my daytrip, the portage into Virgin was going to be a tough one. While only 80 rods long, it had a very steep climb. There was a nice overlook of Lil' Sag at the top though. There was no chance of me staying at the site on Virgin so I pushed on to West Fern. Didn't like the looks of those sites so onto Powell. Powell was the first lake to actually have some green patches along its shoreline. Likely protected from the 30-40 ft knob of rock running along it southern shore. The campsite on the southern side was a pleasant surprise so I decided to call it home. It wasn't raining yet but the temperature was dropping.

I think this site would be a great spot in the summer as the grate is exposed on a high knob with a nice overlook of the lake. Most of which was devastated like Virgin & West Fern. I tried to get out fishing, but the wind kicked up and it started to rain. I was close to the portage to French so I hiked that trail, hoping the rain would let up.

The rain died down and I went back to camp to build a fire to warm my bones. While the scenery in this burn down area may not be the most pleasing? One benefit of it is that there is ample dead and downed firewood. It sprinkled on and off for the rest of the night. I had a nice fire and was entertained by a pair of loons in the middle of the lake calling back n forth doing their water dance.

Little Saganaga Lake, Virgin Lake, West Fern Lake, Powell Lake