So, I saw that thread about the Pond-Gratton portage, and that reminded me, I've got a couple on my route for August I should ask about as well.

Anyone have any info on Darky-Brent? There appears to be a 950M portage, but also a river - can't tell what way it flows, or if it is big enough to navigate. Anyone been through there?

The other are the "Memory Lane" portages, connecting Conmee and Poohbah. 3 portages, pretty long... how bad are they?

The Darky-Brent route does require the portage, because the river is not navigable through there. I just remember the portage being somewhat brushy, but not a big deal.

I was through the Memory Lane Portages last July. My teenage son and I travelled west to east, and got over the three portages between Poohbah and Conmee in about two and a half hours. However, we were single-portaging and tend to travel fast.

Here's part of my trip report "Poohbah Dreams: 13 Days in Quetico"
that refers to the Memory Lane Portages:

"I don’t think we got onto the water until 10:00a, but before long we were at the beginning of the first of the three Memory Lane Portages. The portage was not hard to find, but it was clear that it’s lightly used. Everett headed out with his pack and our paddles, while I donned pack, canoe, and rod case. The trail was brushy and dripping wet, and after a mucky stretch climbed about as steeply as any Quetico portage for a good 50 to 75 feet. Apart from keeping the bow of the canoe off the ground, I was concerned that my feet might slip, causing me to land on my face.

Continuing on, the trail meanders through brush, trees, and wet areas until ending at an unnamed lakelet after 970m. Having worked up a good sweat, we quickly loaded the canoe and headed out onto the lily pad covered water before the insects were able to feast. The lake deepened to the NE, and some stands of ancient white pines tower over its shores. The Chrismar map of the park identifies the location of these portages accurately, and we quickly found the start of the second portage. Depending on the Fisher maps would lead to a lot of fruitless searching.

Portage number two is not overly difficult, but is a mile long (1670m) and brushy in places. The trail is actually scenic over much of its length, as it passes along a ridge wooded by semi-open, jack pine forest, with an open bog to the north. The temperature was by now probably topping 80 degrees, and the sweat was dripping off of my face, but I liked the feeling of getting a good workout while carrying a heavy, but well-balanced load over a long portage. The portage ended at another dark-water lakelet on a shoreline of floating bog. Pretty cool. Fortunately, a good breeze was blowing off the water to cool us down and keep the insects under control.

Back on the water, we passed a campsite located on a bedrock point on the NW shore of the lakelet. This wouldn’t be a bad place to camp if a group found itself here in fading light, a storm, or with an injured paddler.

The third and last of the Memory Lane Portages is 1220m long and is the wettest of them. However, it was not nearly as wet as I expected, and due to the amount of logs placed over muskeg, we never sank deeply into muck. I kept waiting to become mired in bottomless muskeg like I experienced on the Cache Lake Portages years ago, but happily, it never happened. With each wet area we crossed we were closer to the end of the portage, and sooner than expected we found ourselves at Conmee Lake, about two-and-a-half hours after leaving our Poohbah campsite".

River flows from Brent to Darky. Might find some walleye at the Darky end.

DancesWithTrees,
There is also a route from Darky to William via a stream and 3 portages. 2 portages are medium lenght and one is just a lift over into William. The Portage from William into Brent is an easy one.
fishguts

Yeah, the backdoor route to William is scenic, not heavily used, and passes through good moose country. There were a LOT of woodticks on the portages two summers ago...

I highly recommend the "back door" route. One of my favorite single days in the Q was the trip from William to Darky/Darkwater. Note: water conditions and "usage" can make the portage "landings" apparent or not, and maps may have them marked incorrectly. --Goose

I do love me some lesser used routes - thanks for the info everyone!

By the way, speaking of using streams to avoid portages, here is a warning for all... if you ever find yourself hiking down the Trouser-Cache portage (which is a 2 mile muddy slog), and see the creek midway down the portage, and look at the map and see it is the upper Cache "River"... and think, hey, this has a good flow, and dumps into Cache Lake... why not just avoid the 2nd mile of portage and follow the creek?

Don't.

This has been a public service announcement.