Just got back from a trip to the south west part of the park( mcaree, Minn, darky, William, and Brent). The portages along my route were in horrible shape, huge downed trees blocking 90% of the portages. I would advise anyone planning on going through this area to plan double or triple time on these portages or reconsider your plans.
The weather and fishing were great but the trip in was a big detractor from this trip. I’ve been to this area probably 10 times in the last 25 years and I’ll wait at least 5-10 to go back because of the volume of dead trees that will make travel difficult for the near future.

What about getting into Argo?

Did you paddle in from Lac La Croix ranger station?

campnfish: "What about getting into Argo?
I didn’t go to Argo but looking south from darky it looked in burnt
There are maps that display the affected areas of the park I’d consult those. But if you are going to enter from darky definitely don’t use the river portages


Did you paddle in from Lac La Croix ranger station?"

We took a shuttle from crane lake to lac la croix then entered through Macaree at bottle portage.

Thanks for posting this information. I'd been thinking about going back to this part of the park this year, but now I'll probably wait.

I'm interested in hearing the experiences of others who venture into this sector. Maybe the portage maintenance crews will provide some valuable information to the head office.

-Peter

Bummer! We’re planning on working through some of these areas on a longer mileage trip. I’ll have to think about our route a bit and how we work through since we do have options. I had looked at the portage maintenance map and they have not been in these areas at all so far this year.

Ryan

Were a lot of the areas similarly bad, or were there a few portages in particular to avoid? We just finished out annual 2024 trip in a different part of the park, but we were strongly considering returning to the SW part of the park for our 2025 trip.

cburton103: "Were a lot of the areas similarly bad, or were there a few portages in particular to avoid? We just finished out annual 2024 trip in a different part of the park, but we were strongly considering returning to the SW part of the park for our 2025 trip."

The darky river portages, and the portages in the swamp from darky to Williams were worst.

Id seen newer satellite views of the Darky River and it looked like a huge mess. I’d decided to avoid that area with that many trees down in the water.

Was looking at coming in from the north, Minn, McAree, Wicksteed, Darky, into Brent. Then down into Sarah. Still thinking we’ll do it that way since a huge part of our goal is new areas we haven’t been through. I had debated on Rebecca Falls, Curtain falls and then working back North to Darky through Argo and then Brent still as part of the route but it puts us in busier BwCA areas and adds mileage when we’re trying to do Man Chain and Falls chain then back north to come out.

Hopefully enough people go through and sort of clear things up a bit. Not sure where Portage maintenance will go through next as they work through the park this summer.

Ryan

Jm5k: "

cburton103: "Were a lot of the areas similarly bad, or were there a few portages in particular to avoid? We just finished out annual 2024 trip in a different part of the park, but we were strongly considering returning to the SW part of the park for our 2025 trip."

The darky river portages, and the portages in the swamp from darky to Williams were worst. "

Thank you for the information. What portages did you do into/out of Brent? We plan on going through Argo, Cone, Brent, Conmee, and into Poohbah next year. I’m a bit worried about the Memory Lane Portages as well.

I agree!! I just got back from the same area, (Mcaree, Wicksteed, Dark, Argo) and the portages were brutal!! It really added a lot of additional time to get through (especially solo)

Thanks for all the information. We are heading in for 19 days starting this Wednesday and had planned to get into that area. We start at Beaverhouse, but had planned to make it to the SW part of the park via the Maligne River and Eat em Up portage. We may have to look at alternatives. I'm curious if anyone has any reports on portages coming in from the east and accessing Suzette, Connie, Brent and Argo from that directions.

Thanks Much

Just got out today. The two campsites across from Rebecca Falls are toast. Really sad to see. About a third of McAree’s campsites were decimated by the fire, so keep that in mind if you’re teeing up an exit pickup at Black Robe. All sites were taken this weekend.
AdamX