why,  the river flows in a downhill direction, of course!

which is roughly from East to West

I've paddled thru Lad LaCroix and down the Namakan as far as the Quetico River, then up that to Beaverhouse.  Some rapids to portage around,  and float planes land on 3 mile lake.  A highlight of the river was seeing lots of sturgeon migrating upriver (and a stop at the little store at the LacLaCroix village for ice cream bars).  Some of the campsites see heavy use/were overused, liely by fishing guides. 

For the section we did, the portages were as marked on the Fisher maps;  the one Wally missed is on the island.