[paragraph break]Discovered this morning that I was actually getting a bit of signal on my phone when I tried to see if I could get a better forecast than the limited one I get on my InReach. Decided to surprise my wife with a quick phone call and let her know I was able to avoid the worst of the wind since I knew she would be worried when she checked the weather I was experiencing.

[paragraph break]I knew the wind was likely going to be very strong again today – (14mph gusting to 30 by afternoon) so decided that this would be a layover day and I would not travel. Wind had switched to the NW overnight and was already blowing a bit even this early, so decided that if I was going to explore Boulder Lake I better do it earlier and not later. I headed out with my fishing gear and a bag of rocks for ballast and started exploring and fishing around the corners of Phantom making my way to the portage over to Boulder. Portage was a little difficult to find and it was further North that what seems like the logical place. This portage was quite overgrown and in places was a little hard to see but overall another pretty easy portage with the sloping hill on the Boulder side the only real challenge. Note that on my McKenzie map it showed only 16 rods, but it was in fact more like the 38 like on the BWCA.com maps.

[paragraph break]As soon as I got into the canoe on Boulder I saw an Eagle fly by and a pair of Swans on the lake. I took my time and first explored the area where the Phantom Creek empties into the lake. I would guess that this waterway would be easily navigable with a little higher water. As it was I went back quite a ways before I came to a beaver dam. Would not have been very hard to get over that but knowing the wind was going to be coming up I didn’t want to go down that particular rabbit hole. I also noted how this creek might be the easiest way to get between Phantom and Boulder earlier in the year or with higher water levels. As I made my way around the lake I also checked out the NW corner where another water way seems to come into the lake. Noted that this whole side of the lake would be an excellent place to watch from Moose.

[paragraph break]I then paddled back to the island and checked out the campsite. Was a very nice site and I took a few minutes to enjoy the view and stretch my legs. Was more protected that my Phantom site and had excellent Hammock spots. Tents spots were ok but they all seemed to be a bit sloped. Nice rocks to fish from or just to sit right by the water. The landing was decent. Boulder Lake campsite

Made my way back to Phantom and then drifted with the wind back to camp while tossing a Rapala to see what might bite. Caught a couple of small northerns before a third bigger one broke my line right at the side of my Canoe.

I made it back around 11:00 and with the wind picking up decided to switch over to my dry footware for the afternoon. Had a tortilla lunch and then fell asleep in the hammock while doing some reading. Woke up and decided a second lunch was in order. I had packed a couple of small Camp Chow single meals so had one of those. I decided to gather up some firewood in order to have a fire tonight and to make sure I left a good stockpile for the next visitors. I had no problem in this little used campsite finding plenty of dry wood of various sizes from kindling to small logs. I had borrowed a friends Agawa Boreal21 folding saw which I highly recommend.

[paragraph break]Before having supper I took advantage of the slightly diminished winds to do a little more fishing and to scout the Portage into Battle that I would be taking the next morning. Caught one more small northern but nothing to write home about.

[paragraph break]Had a wonderful evening with a small fire, another good meal, watched the sunset, and then sat and watched the stars slowly come out. Temp was prefect light jacket weather and mosquitoes were non-existent! Definitely took time to just enjoy the night sky for a good while before crawling into the hammock for the night. Sunrise on Phantom Lake~Phantom Lake, Boulder Lake

[paragraph break]The best thing about this morning is that I finally get to enjoy some calm after having the wind blowing into camp since I got here. The bummer is this will be the only low wind day as the forecast calls for increasing wind once again, this time from the SSW starting Tuesday morning and not letting up until late Wednesday.

[paragraph break]After my typical breakfast I quickly pack up camp and do a couple of walk throughs. Whoever is the next one at this camp will find it clean with a nice supply of all sizes of firewood and kindling. I load up and start the short paddle to the Battle Lake portage to start my day. My goal is to find a campsite somewhere between the Northern part of Crab and Cummings. [paragraph break]Since I took the southern route from Crab to get to Phantom I am now taking the route through Battle, Hassel, and Saca to get back to Crab to see different scenery. Originally I had planned on traveling through Lunetta to Little Crab, but when I asked about this at Piragis they thought this creek might not be passable right now.

[paragraph break]Travel on this route was largely uneventful. I took a nice look at the Battle campsite as I paddled by, from what I can see I understand why someone gave it 5 stars. I would say that all the portages along this route need a fair bit of maintenance. I don’t recall if it was the Hassel-Saca or the Saca-Crab but there is a significant detour needed because of a large fir that has dropped across the path. I wouldn’t say any of these portages are what I would call hard, but the collective almost 400rods adds up to a nice challenge.

[paragraph break]Once back on Crab I make my way through the narrows and turn north towards Little Crab. I see that many of the campsites on Crab are taken, but not the one on the west side of the Lake up near the portage to Little Crab. I take a few minutes to pull up and check this out just in case I need to backtrack. Pretty small site but would certainly be well protected from the wind. Also had a very nice beach-like landing zone that would make for excellent swimming. Although compared to the nice looking sites across the lake I can see why this one often gets passed up.

[paragraph break]Next up is the portage into Little Crab. This short portage is about as easy as a portage could be. Super wide and flat with nice landings on both ends. As I put in on Little Crab, I am feeling I might be ready to call it a day and tell myself I will take the Little Crab Site if it is available. As I come up to the site I see some movement and realize it is not available, but at this point I could use some intel so I call out a guy that turns out to be Fishscramble. We had exchanged some messages on the trip planning forum the previous week. He lets me know that he thinks the Korb Lake site might be open but there was another group asking about it earlier that was heading that way. He also tell me the creek going to Lunetta is indeed navigable but he’s not sure on the status of the one campsite on that lake.

[paragraph break]I know that if I go the Lunetta way and that site is taken I’d likely be turning around or facing some significant distance and multiple portage to the next option. On the other hand, if I head to Korb and it is taken, there are many sites on Cummings if necessary. Plus, I have heard some nice things about the Korb river, so it doesn’t take me long to decide to proceed to Korb.

[paragraph break]The Korb river is pretty neat and even this time of year has plenty of water except for the beaver dam toward the Korb Lake side. If the water was any higher, this would be a pretty easy pull over, but in the rivers current level I opt for the short portage. For a short portage this one was kind of tricky with a boulder field landing on the south side and deep muck on the other.

[paragraph break]As I come out onto Korb Lake I see a group is at the campsite, but they are not set up and suspect they are just scouting it out. Turns out this was the case and as a large group of 9 they find that there just isn’t going to be enough room for them, so the site is all mine if I want it. Being as I am feeling pretty darn ready to be done for the day this was welcome news. A very quick look around confirms there is at least a couple of nice hammock spots and I unloaded, started the water filter, and had some lunch before I set up camp.

[paragraph break]Enjoyed a relaxing/lazy afternoon at this site, which is situated on top of a high cliff. Had one tandem canoe go by mid-afternoon but otherwise saw nobody else. Great view but going from the landing up to camp is a bit of a chore. Mid afternoon I took a nice little swim and took advantage of the quick drop off and a good size rock to jump in! Later in the afternoon I debated doing a loop through Cummings and/or exploring up to Silica Lake and Coxey Pond but decided to just stay put. I did go out in the Canoe just before sunset and did some fishing. Caught a largemouth, northern, and a big plump bluegill…all of which went back into the lake for someone else. Paddled back in, did some reading, and called it a day. Forecast had the wind picking up overnight and through the day tomorrow. Wanting to get an early start so I could get a campsite near my exit I turned in at dark. ~Phantom Lake, Battle Lake, Hassel Lake, Saca Lake, Crab Lake, Little Crab Lake, Korb Lake

[paragraph break]Was not thrilled that shortly after I took this picture a breeze picked up from the SSW. I would be paddling with a headwind again today. Proceeded to update the forecast on my InReach and got some bad news. While today I had a window until about 11 until the wind really picked up, it didn’t look like it was going to die down much if at all overnight before becoming even stronger the next day which was my exit day to paddle Burntside. The wind was going to be form the SSW which meant I would be going straight into it on the big lake. [paragraph break]I was concerned enough that 16mph gusting to 32 was going from unpleasant to dangerous that I went to check to see if I any cell signal. When I saw that I did I made the decision to see if I could get picked up the next day instead of paddling. Ryan at Ely Outdoor company answered my text pretty quickly and let me know they could pick me up at 1:00pm. Debated internally a bit between challenging myself and worst case scenario and opted to go let him know that I would go ahead and take the tow.

[paragraph break]With that decided I felt much better about the day. I still wanted to get one of the three sites on the southeast part of Crab and made sure to close up camp and set off quickly. I was slowed down a bit by the already significant headwind as I made my way down the Korb River, through Little Crab, and onto Crab Lake. Crab presented a bit of a challenge but I was very happy with the trim I had established that allowed me to track well.

[paragraph break]My first choice was the campsite closest to the Burntside portage and I was pretty dang happy to find this open as I made my way around the small island in front of the site. This really did turn out to be a great site and a prefect place to spend my last 24 hours. It is a large site that could probably accommodate a max size group with room to spare. I picked a couple of properly spaced trees near the water for my hammock. With the wind being from the SSW, there was still a nice little breeze blowing up the creek that comes from Clark Lake, which seems like it would be a viable way to get to Clark Lake even at moderate water levels. [paragraph break]It was a quite warm afternoon and I took several swims to cool off and refresh myself. I also took the canoe out a couple of times to see what fish I could scare up. I did hook into something that was good size that ran out my drag for awhile before my line snapped, would have liked to see what it was. Early in the afternoon there was one canoe that I saw making their way towards Burntside which turned out to the the only canoe I would see all day. I could hear the wind blowing in the higher branches but it really turned out to be a nice protected little bay the whole afternoon and evening.

[paragraph break]That night I had another nice fire and again just sat by the lake taking in the transition from sunset to twilight to night. I had also set up my hammock tarp in ‘porch’ mode so as I laid in bed I could look out from the hammock to the northern sky, hoping that at some point in the night the northern lights would make an appearance. Alas, no such luck this trip. I slept well with the sound of the wind in the tree branches high above me. At one point I realized that I would not have found this nearly as soothing if I didn’t have a ride lined up the next day!

Southern most Crab Lake campsite ~Korb Lake, Little Crab Lake, Crab Lake

[paragraph break]At one point I started hearing thumps of something hitting the ground. I was able to figure out these were green pinecones that were being thrown down by a red squirrel high up in the canopy of the mature red pines that dominate this site. Once I could see where he was, I engaged in a little game of catch where I would try to catch the pinecones as they Plinko’d through the branches. I’m sure anyone seeing this would have questioned my sanity.

[paragraph break]I finished packing up camp and during my walk around found plenty of little pieces of trash. Obviously a 'well loved' campsite. I left camp and made my way quickly over to the lengthy portage to Burntside. This time I would be walking this distance three times as I double portaged across. My timing was very good as the tow boat came into view less than a minute after I brought my final load over. Was happy to see my new friend Andy driving the boat and he was excited to hear all about my trip. He said I definitely made the right call in getting that tow that day, although the lake wasn’t as bad as I had feared.

[paragraph break]I was back at the landing before I knew it. Loaded up my gear and strapped the canoe on and started on my drive home. It really was a great trip and it's got me considering an October solo! ~Crab Lake, Burntside Lake