Day 38, Aug. 10: Flagstaff Hut to Grand Falls Hut

Mileage: 10 paddling miles,  2- 4 portaging/hiking miles

Weather: Rainy all day until late afternoon

Wildlife: Beaver, eagle, loons (all seen along the Dead River)

Portages: 2
#1: 1 mile + around Long Falls
This is a well-marked portage. However, the signs lead you along a river side trail vs. the wheelable road. The first section from Flagstaff Lake to the road IS along a trail, and not wheelable, but soon intersects with a dirt road (leading to the dam itself.) There are boulder barriers by the ROAD, which is up and on your left as you come off the trail leading from Flagstaff Lake. Once on it, you can wheel all the way to the bridge and/or beyond to the Big Eddy Campsite to the put-in after Long Falls.

We, however, carried our first load along the trail before we realized that the road paralleled the trail. On our second trip, we wheeled the third bag in the canoe along the road to the bridge. The water levels were too low, and the boulders too numerous for my comfort, so we wheeled on down the road to Big Eddy Campsite. There was a sign by the campsite indicating that the dam was scheduled to release water for 2400 cfs three days later on 8/13. Not sure what the levels were at today, but we were more than 10 days away from the last release. There were still boulders in the Big Eddy Campsite area, and we momentarily got hung up on a submerged "hippo" over on one of two small rips before the river flattens out. One nice thing about the foot trail is that we were able to view the gorge and falls, something you'd miss if taking only the road.

Long Falls

#2: .7 miles (?) around Grand Falls.
We first stopped at the Grand Falls Hut dock which is on the right side of the island before the bridge and falls in order to scout out our hiking direction to the Hut vs. the portage trail. Decided it was much too far and not worth portaging all the gear from the designated dock. We also ended up scouting out the portage route at the same time we were looking for the Hut trail. I found this area to be very confusing. (Maybe because we approached it from the land vs. water?) There is a tangle of snowmobile trails, falls hiking trails and cabin driveways at the "intersection." I also missed seeing a NFCT blaze for the take-out for the actual portage. We did a lot of walking this day and decided the best thing was to leave the canoe and unneeded gear at the Spencer Stream entrance for the night. (We ended up staying at the Hut.)

One of the stone stairs
on the Grand Falls trail

To get to Spencer Stream, we picked up the parked canoe from the Grand Falls Hut dock and went back around the island on the left, but took out before the breached dam (ruins.) Took out at a steep bank where there was evidence of trails, but no NFCT blaze, so we probably over or undershot the actual take-out. The "trail" passes one or two cabins on your right (which are perched along the river.) This driveway takes you to the "intersection" where you see snowmobile, XC ski and white Maine Hut signs. Other paddlers have shot the dam ruins and taken out by the new bridge, which is still above the Grand Falls. This would bring you right to the "intersection" and avoid the steep hill where we took out. At this junction, I didn't see a NFCT sign. We used the "middle" road just LEFT of the Maine Hut blazed trail. This WAS WHEELABLE all the way to the put-in at the Little Spencer Creek foot bridge--and at one point, we did come upon an affirming NFCT blaze. We did check out the Grand Falls trail that follows the river. It has gorgeous stone stairway. Beautiful, but would be very steep for portaging.

Update: Here's a map I received after the trip that better details the trails. Based on this, I fairly certain I took out past the official take-out, within that small bay, just above the breached dam after the island with the campsite.

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We left the Flagstaff Hut in rain on some rolling waves, courtesy of a tailwind. This was my first real paddling rain day, something which Kacia expected, since we usually have rain when we go camping. Once we got back on the water after the Long Falls portage, the river was very flat and easy to paddle. Stopped for lunch at Philbrick Landing in a slight drizzle. By afternoon, our rain gear was already drying out.

Paddling on the Dead River
between Long Falls and Grand Falls

We had talked to the staff at the Flagstaff Hut about the availability staying at Grand Falls tonight if we decided on doing that at the spur of the moment. They need to plan for food, but since we were carrying our own anyway, all we were interested in was primarily the beds. There is a nice-looking campsite by Spencer Stream (I think Map 9 shows the site in the wrong location or there is another one here), but we decided to head for the hut. So we stashed the food barrel, tent and canoe at the Little Spencer put-in and took only a dinner and breakfast along with the cook kit, our sleeping bags and clothes in the yellow and blue bags for the night.

We walked the mile trail to the Hut along the river. This may be fairly far off the NFCT trail for a night's stay compared to the Flagstaff Hut to which you can paddle. (To make the Grand Falls hike shorter, you could paddle a bit further down the Dead River past Spencer Stream and pick up the trail instead from the parking area, but then you'd need to paddle back upstream to reconnect with Spencer Stream.) Like the Flagstaff Hut, it was absolutely beautiful--and the promise of a hot shower and another cold beverage at the end of a wet day may be incentive enough. We knew that we were going to be the only two people there that night, but I wouldn't have walked there not knowing if there was going to be room for us or not ahead of time. Had a nice chat with the lone staffer.

We hung our gear up in the drying room to air out and cooked our dinner on the picnic table in the back overlooking the mountains. Played a game of Yahtzee and watched the moon rise. Another wonderful night.

Dinner: Marsala with rice, gorp

Fire pit at the Grand Falls Hut 

Guest rooms at the Grand Falls Hut