Crab Lake
by landoftheskytintedwater
We awoke around five and got our things together before making the first trip out to the Burntside public access to drop off my canoe before heading back to the outfitter to pick up the second. Our second canoe was already waiting for us at the public access so we dropped off all the gear and Drew and I headed back to Voyager North to pick up our permit and some paddles. The weather was low 70s, little wind, and clear skies.
We were on the water by 7am and reached the portage to Crab by 8. We split up the gear and headed up the mile long portage. The trail was rocky for the first 100 rods or so and had a lot of up and downs. We took a break just short of the marsh and where it looked like the new portage connected with the old one. The rest of the portage leveled off a bit and became straighter and less hilly. We took a second break about 50 rods short of the end of the portage and then finished it off after 45-60 minutes of hiking total. It was a rough way to begin a trip but at least the worst was behind us for the day. We then paddled across Crab Lake and took the 20 rod portage to Little Crab. The path was well worn, wide, and very easy. After paddling through Little Crab, we traveled down the Korb River, lifted over the 2 rod portage, and moved onto Korb Lake. We decided to skip the extra paddling across Korb Lake and further down the Korb River to the 30 rod portage and we took the 70 rod instead. The trail was also pretty good other than scat being all over the place. We put into Cummings Lake and headed to one of the two island sites on the eastern portion of the lake. We came the first site and decided to stop there after seeing how nice the site was. The grate area had some nice benches around it, the tent pads were nice and away from the fire grate and we had a nice rock landing. It took us about five hours to get from the public access on Burntside to our campsite on Cummings. A storm briefly rolled through around five in the afternoon and then we grilled up some steaks for our first night. The night ended with some whiskey and a campfire.