geotramper: "My dad and I did this earlier this spring. We went Sawbill -> Grace in about 5 hours with a mix of single and double portaging. We base-camped at the site on the peninsula. We did a little fishing but that wasn't our focus.
I had heard that the route east out of Sawbill got pretty busy so decided to go west. Once we got past the long portage between Beth and Grace we didn't see many people and had our pick of campsites.
We did a day trip over to Phoebe and Knight looking for Walleye."
+1
This! Going over the 280 rd portage from Beth to Grace leaves a lot of the traffic behind. Depending on when you are going you might not even find an open campsite on the Fire Lakes.