Solus wrote on Mar 27^th, 2011 at 6:13pm:

The creek between Baird and Cub is stunning. ... The portage between Keats and Baird is strenuous.

I did this portage (and route) the other direction in '08.  I'd agree that the Keats to Baird portage is an attention getter.  From the Keats side it ascends up a small creek channel.  Once the trail turns left out of the creek it gets MUCH steeper.  Once the climb has been completed, its is a distance of ground with some minor ups and downs.  Once you begin your descent to Baird, the trail plunges rather significantly over some rock face terrain (which I got to do when it was wet).  The final few yards were (when I did it) a mucky mess.  Loads of fun.  A wrinkle was added to my fun by a large deadfall from steep descent (rock face) to a less severe descent ... too large to step over without unloading (of course I was doing it the other direction).

When you exit Baird as it enters  Cutty Creek, one of you should go ahead and stand at the bottom of the portage and let the other pitch stuff down to him/her.  You'll know what I mean when you see it.  That part of the creek is relatively narrow, which was a minor problem when I made the traverse.  I ran into a small deadfall just on the surface of the water and spanning the channel.  Paddling solo, I could not reach it to move it out of the way since the channel was too narrow to get sideways to the obstruction.  I eventually stepped out into the hummock grass along the channel to remove my impediment.

dd