Mileage: A mere 9ish miles
Time: 12-13 hours to track 6.5 miles on Spencer and Little Spencer Streams and paddle 2.5 - 3 or so miles on Spencer Lake to the campsite
Weather: Partly sunny, a few sprinkles mid-morning, overall pleasant temperatures for a day spent mostly walking in water
Wildlife: Heron, loons, deer, moose-crashing, but alas, no sighting
Portages: 2
#1: 1 mile back from the Hut to the stashed canoe at the confluence of Spencer Stream
#2: Middle deadwater pond to Spencer Lake (details below), we did not portage around the dam
Left the Hut at 7:30 am and hiked back to the canoe. The river trail we took last night turned out to be .2 miles longer than the rooty and rocky highland trail we took this morning that was still under construction.
Loaded the boat and started our day but checking out the Grand Falls from the water. Wished we had been able to read Team Collett's blog first. They paddled under/behind the falls which sounded totally wild. It never occurred to us to do that!
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| Grand Falls |
The water on Spencer Stream was about as low as the Upper Ammonoosac. The first two miles took us 2.5 hours -- mostly walking -- with the occasional pool that enticed us enough to consider paddling for short stretches. When we had to get out, there was still enough water in this section, that we could track and float the canoe without unloading it.
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| Tracking happiness |
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| More tracking |
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| No tracking if we could help it |
I had no difficulty determining the streams that joined Spencer and Little Spencer as we worked our way north. Without a GPS, I did pay especially close attention to the map and repeatedly referenced the compass. And, I was able to follow the river rock "blazes" along the way. These appeared in a variety of colors: green (Team Moxie?), red (Pat W.?) Knowing other paddlers had left evidence scrapping their way on toward Spencer Lake was definitely reaffirming.
We stopped for lunch at the beginning of Little Spencer Stream, whose depth, at first, look promising. A few more hours, another 1/2 mile or so into the "paddle," we're getting out of the canoe again and Kacia stops to ask: Um...this river seems as bad as the S. Br. of the Dead River looked and you skipped that one. So...what's the difference?
Well, for starters, about 17.5 miles...
If you don't do this section, you end up having to skip a lot more than just this piece of river and after walking up half of the Upper Ammo in New Hampshire with Linda, I knew we'd be able to pull this off, however long it would take. Personally, I rather walk up a river than wheel along a busy highway. So onward, we trudged. The river is beautiful -- richly lichen-covered rocks, pines and cedars, boulders. We saw evidence of the logging road at the Spencer/Little Spencer Streams juncture, (a zip line), but stuck with the river for now.
We had more success paddling up Little Spencer Stream between Parker Brook and Parker Bog Brook, but from Parker Bog Brook to Lower Deadwater, there were lots of exposed boulders from the low water. We unloaded the boat twice for lifting when we couldn't maneuver it around or over rocks. There also was one newish looking beaver dam which was becoming fairly solid looking and a second one under construction. This is the area where we startled a moose in the thickets by a small island. It went crashing one way while we scurried off another. Pretty sure we were only a few feet away from each other.
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| This isn't looking too good |
We hit the first deadwater pool (Lower) in very late afternoon (or more likely dinner time) after I carried the packs over the waterless rips. We opened a package of tuna and wolfed it down with crackers and gorp to sustain us until dinner. And an excellent decision that turned out to be.
Like the first deadwater, the second (Middle) Deadwater area was also separated by a waterless rip, so the canoe was unloaded again and gear carried over the boulder field. I was starting to get concerned about the time. Sun was still up, but getting lower and I knew we had a dam at the end to portage over.
The Deadwater pools were very shallow and also boulder-strewn. We skidded over and hit the occasional submerged "hippo." Paddling through them in the fading light wasn't as pleasant as you'd hope for with a name like deadwater.
As we approached the end of the Middle Deadwater and toward what the map actually indicated as a rapids between us and the Upper Deadwater, we espied an aluminum fishing boat on the west shore. That means someone was able to get it there...meaning a possible portage? The map indicates a logging road running parallel to the water bodies on the west and I assumed this was how the boat got here. This seemed preferable to battling more rocks in poor light. We unloaded and followed an obvious trail a short distance to a parking area and road. I also scouted out more along the river to determine if there might actually be a portage around the rapids. There are little orange plastic markers hanging from branches that seem to suggest a trail to be followed, but they don't really lead anywhere, so I assume it was some sort of logging or property line indicator. At this point, the sun was starting to set behind the mountain. I consider camping here. But no, not just yet. Let's see where the road goes. And beside, I had registered for the free site on Spencer Lake Sandbar Campsite back in May. We strap on the wheels and just take off heading north, presumably toward Spencer Lake. If we don't find the lake, the back-up plan will be to camp by the road and start out fresh in the morning.
I'd estimate we wheeled 1/2 - 3/4 miles and then saw a definite opening in the woods ahead with sunlight reflecting off a big body of water. The road had turned into a snowmobile trail that lead ALL THE WAY TO SPENCER LAKE! We pass a cabin on our right and continue on the path that brings us to a rocky/sandy beach area (left of the cabin.) I can't believe that this actually worked out to our advantage this easily and more importantly, in time. Perhaps we were trespassing in some way, but the 100% wheelable portage from the trail that led from Middle Deadwater to Spencer Lake saved us enough light that we could still paddle to the campsite. Plus, we were able to avoid the dam that other paddlers have been having problems negotiating. Not sure what we missed in Upper Deadwater, but we were happy campers finding ourselves so much sooner on Spencer Lake.
We launched on Spencer Lake just as the sun set and paddled in twilight. I looked back to locate the dam, but it's tucked back east of us and I don't see it. The cabin we saw along the snowmobile has a bench perched on a boulder with a gorgeous lake-length view. We need to get moving.
I expected to see other campers in the sites, but we had the entire lake to ourselves. It was getting hard to find the Sandbar Campsites in the fading light, a little less than halfway along the eastern shore, but we loved what we saw when we found them. Beautiful beach sites and probably the best outhouse to date. This lake was worth the hike. It's a shame we don't have more time to spend here.
Set up camp by headlamps.
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| Sandbar campsite looking south on Spencer Lake |
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| A fine outhouse |
