Woke up early and broke down camp while the coffee percolated. Ate a quick pancake breakfast and said good bye to our temporary home. We battled a little wind as we head north to the portage into Virgin Lake. Our plan was to fish West Fern and Powell Lakes on our way into Gillis or possibly Bat.

Virgin Lake portage was like all of the others along this route, rocky and hilly. Took a quick break at the crest of the ridge mid portage and made our way to the lake. We were officially in the burn area. I’ve never traveled through a burn area and it was a really cool experience. Beautiful to see the regrowth of the forest in that stage.

Across Virgin and into West Fern Lake where we rigged up our fishing rods and set off trolling around the lake. West Fern is a beautiful lake with green blue water. We fished for a few hours and picked up a nice Trout that went on the stringer. We searched for the two campsites but were unsuccessful in finding either one of them. We decided we better get going if we were going to get to Gillis or Bat and wanted to make sure we had a sight for the night, not knowing how busy it would be since it was the start of the weekend.

Across the portage and into Powell, we searched for the campsites and contemplated camping there, but the only site we could locate was perched high up on a rock and was getting basted by the wind. This site would do in a pinch but not for us on this day. We headed onto the portage and into French Lake, checked a site but decided to venture on to Gillis. Sites on the North and West sides of Gillis were taken. We could have headed north to the site near the portage to Bat but instead we opted for the longer paddle to check out the Eastern Camp (#507) outside of the burn area. Luckily for us, it was unoccupied. This would be home for the next two nights. West facing site with a great view and numerous flat tent pads. Landing is a little tricky, but the rest of the camp made up for it. Got camp settled and fished from shore a bit. Had a couple of bites and follows but weren’t able to land anything. Dinner was started and we cut up the West Fern Lake Trout that we had hauled all the way to Gillis. This trout was a much different color than the Trout from Little Sag. A deep pink flesh, and the flavor was similar to a salmon. It was delicious and much better tasting than the Little Sag Trout.

Breakfast - Blueberry Pancakes

Dinner - Cache Lake Foods Spaghetti

~Little Saganaga Lake, Virgin Lake, West Fern Lake, Powell Lake, French Lake, Gillis Lake