MT -

Typically I'm wearing long pants on portages due to foliage overgrowth & the fact that I am highly allergic to poison ivy.  Incidentally, there is one little known BENEFIT to being allergic to poison ivy.  If you happen to have planters' warts on your feet, dermatologists might suggest that you actually walk BAREFOOT down the portage path.  Yes, you will likely catch poison ivy but there is a better than 50% chance that you will also get rid of your planters' warts as your body recovers from the poison ivy.  I once had thirty of the damn things on my feet; THAT was how I got rid of them!

Re: lymes disease, I'm not sure how many cases can be attributed to time spent in the Q or the BWCA.  I'd be interested in hearing any facts or figures on that one.  I went into the Q this past August w/a good friend from NJ who caught the disease in NJ & was just recovering from the stuff.  It's very prevalent out east &, to listen to him, it's really bad news stuff.  Catch the symptoms early and deal with them or go through hell... those appear to be your choices. 

I've never had problems w/ticks in the Q beyond the middle of July.  They are particularly bad in the spring & then they seem to tail off & virtually disappear by that time.  Plucked 13 of the little beggars off of me after walking that long portage from Yeh into Lonely Lake one June.  You get a bit further north in the province, however, & they don't exist.  My understanding is that they are NOT present at all in Woodland Caribou Park.  Of course, with global warming, who knows how long THAT circumstance will last.

Most campsites I've visited in the Q have been relatively free of poison ivy so I walk about freely in shorts (sometimes in less than that).  On the other hand, I exercise a bit more care when I trot back into the woods, trowel in hand.  There are some places on your body where you simply do not want to catch poison ivy... regardless of the presence of warts.

Jimbo   8-)