Portage Description:
The portage is fine, if you like knowing where you are going. But if per chance you are on Jean in the spring, when water levels are sufficient, there is actually an adventurous little bypass you could take to get there. Now, the rate of adventure correlates directly to the portion of map you have.

The day trip we took into Burntside from Jean was great, Burntside is another scenic lake with good fishing and nice campsites, especially the large one on the Island. But to get to Burntside, you could take the little creek out of the west side of Jean that runs into another bay/extension lake. This is probably where the majority of the northern pike go to mate in the spring, because it is mostly shallow and weedy. But this little bay actually has a creek attached to it as well, and this creek leads down into Burntside. You will have to portage around the first part of the creek, but somebody has done it before, so there is a trail on the left side. When you can actually put your canoe in the creek really depends on the amount of gear you brought with you and how high the water is. There is an extremely small inlet that allows you to get into the creek from dry land, but it your canoe won't budge if you have a lot of gear or your canoe and you add up to a lot by itself.

I don't recommend doing this unless it is just a day trip. If you really want to haul of your gear through that, then more power to ya. But if you are just looking for an out-of-the way trail of getting to Burntside, this detour will take you right down to the west bay of that lake. Just make sure you find the canal-like passage going into the easy bay of Burntside, otherwise you might be spending more time paddling then you intended. Good luck with that!

Lake after portage: Burntside (Q)
Known campsites: not sure
Lake Description:
On the large island campsite there should still be a piece of wood that has some people names carved into it along with the dates they stayed there. A group had gotten stuck on the island campsite for almost a week of bad weather. Which is quite something, considering Burntside is a moderate man's two day paddle.

Portage from Burntside (Q) into:
Clair