There’s not much chatter on here anymore, but I assume many of you have been following the fire situation in the Park and the related closure. I found some clear sat images of the Olifaunt fire as of today 8/6/26. The fire burnt the entire B-Chain, Rawn Narrows, the whole land mass between the south shore of Pickerel and the north shore of Rawn, over to the southern half of Baptism Creek and the north half of Trousers. Unclear how much further south this extended, as cloud cover blocked the view. The good news: Dawson / French Lake / French River were not impacted. The Pines still stand. The north half of Pine Portage Bay is fine, as are Dore - Twin Lakes - Deux.

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I’d been sitting on an 8/10 entry permit for French-Pickerel. I really thought they would re-open on 8/8, as did my friends at CCO. This was to be my 9yo’s first career Q trip. Sadly he’ll have to wait another year. Plan B is heading up to one of CCO’s outpost camps that happened to be open for our dates.

Ranger, have you considered a trip into the White Otter area?

The fishing is excellent from everything I've read.

  The Northern Tier Boy Scouts have routes thru the park. From mild to wild. There is a 50 mile loop out of Clearwater Lake that would be perfect for a young paddler, easy on you too.

It's the first one listed. You could leave your vehicle at Brown's Clearwater lodge so it's secure.

Every route lists the map(s) you need.

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Ranger wrote on Aug 6^th, 2026 at 11:04pm:

I’d been sitting on an 8/10 entry permit for French-Pickerel. I really thought they would re-open on 8/8, as did my friends at CCO. This was to be my 9yo’s first career Q trip. Sadly he’ll have to wait another year. Plan B is heading up to one of CCO’s outpost camps that happened to be open for our dates.

Arrgh. Thanks for the update.

Yeah, this one hurts. This won't be done burning until there's a foot of snow on top of it.