On the way out, after portaging the 85-rods out of Phoebe toward Grace, and jumping through the hoops of the three short portages to get to the lake, we veered north on Grace Lake to the more northern 147-rod portage to Ella Lake…Damn Ella! The shore of the portage was rocky and jagged; make that the entire portage!! It was quite steep in some areas, horribly buggy, and rocks galore!! My husband had been double portaging the entire trip with the canoe, and a pack, with myself carrying the other pack, paddles, and a small seal line bag. This was a trying portage; I ended up rolling my ankle twice (29 years and I had never done that)! We were eaten alive, and a bit winded after all gear was on the shore of Ella. Once paddling, we were only in the canoe a matter of minutes before reaching the southern shore where the next 90-rod portage awaited. This portage was thankfully less buggy and rocky, and all over more manageable. This brought us to the northwest shore of beautiful Beth Lake, where had my ankle not been throbbing and growing in size, I would have insisted we stay a night. Many sites were taken; no doubt due to the great fishing and scenic well positioned sites. After paddling the length of Beth to the eastern shore, we portaged a comfortable 140-rod descent to Alton Lake. We paddled up the east side of Alton to the easy 30-rod portage back into Sawbill Lake, where it was immediately evident we were coming into civilization.