We got up around 7 and were on the water by 8. No one was excited to take the mile portage back to Burntside so we had decided to try Crab Creek as our exit. I checked with the Forest Station before our trip and was told that water levels were high enough for travel on Crab Creek. I had told our group that I had read on the forum that there were a couple portages along the way but that I didn't know how long or how many over obstacles we would come across. Up until now, everything had gone smoothly, nothing real unexpected, but we were about to get our adventure for the trip on the way out.

Right away, we hit some downed trees that we have to carry around, which was then followed by some more logs that we had to pull the canoe over. Then we had some decent paddling down the creek until we hit about a quarter mile area with five or six liftovers and beaver damns. Meanwhile, we were listening to thunder to our north and south and the clouds seemed to be bearing down on us. We finally got to a portage and it started raining for a bit. We took one trip with the packs down the portage to see how long it was and what was at the other end. Greeting us at the end of the portage was a large muddy area with some fresh bear tracks through it. After trudging through the mud and seeing that the creek did continue, we headed back up the 70-90 rod portage and got the canoes. For the next half mile or so Crab Creek was curve after curve back and forth until we reached a second portage which we decided to single trip. This portage was shorter than the first, 40-60 rods, but the landing was incredibly muddy. Wondering if we would ever come to Burntside, we put back in the water and paddled through some more curves until we started seeing lighting and Drew made us get off the water. We pulled into a muddy area and got out and headed into some trees for about 20 minutes as lightning passed through the area. Back on the water, we came to another liftover but our morale was rising because we were pretty sure we were closing in on Burntside. Then we rounded a corner and the lake was visible past another little liftover. We all cheered but then we realized that there was heavy wind on Burntside. It took us about an hour of intense paddling to get back to the public access and we were exhausted. The creek probably took about 2.5 hours to complete and while now the experience was worth it, if I go back to Crab Lake, I will take the portage every time.

To finish the experience, we headed to the Ely Steakhouse after dropping our canoe back off at VNorth and had some burgers and beer. Overall, the trip was great and we couldn't have gotten much better weather in May. Looking forward to a longer trip in July.