Lady Chain Louse River Loop
by mkematt
Up early, on the water by 6:30. Sawbill to Alton, Beth, Grace, the river and camped on Phoebe. We were packed light and were able to single portage the entire trip. The portages in this section were well maintained and presented no real problems. The 285 rd portage from Beth to Grace was long, but very manageable. The hills were not too steep and there was minimal mud. We were at Phoebe by noon and stayed on the campsite on the south end of the lake facing east. This site is on a hillside, up a ways from the lake and the landing is a little tricky in that the rocks are somewhat slippery. The kitchen / fire pit is a large slab of rock. What I liked was that the tent pads were level and grass covered. The weather forecast called for a storm on Monday night, so I was looking for good drainage and having the hill behind us offered at least some protection from the wind. One more thing - one of the tent pads had quite a pile of Moose scat near it. We spent the afternoon preparing firewood and fishing. My nephew caught a 20" Walleye (green jig and leach drifting over deep water just east of the islands), so dinner was fish taco's. We had a small campfire and spent the rest of the evening preparing camp for the storm. As it turned out, the weather forecast was right - it was a strong storm on Monday night - more about that on the Tuesday section of this trip report. Lots of lightning and it rained buckets. As I suspected, the tent pad was well drained and the hillside did help block the wind. The worst of the storm passed before morning.