Chapter 29

South Branch of the Dead River (Dallas Bridge to Flagstaff Lake)

The start to the 2025 season! I’m going to keep this short as it was a quick trip; unfortunately no pictures or GPS data for this trip!

I arranged a shuttle with Rangeley Adventure Company (f.k.a. Ecopelagicon) so I could leave my car at Flagstaff Lake, my endpoint. I camped out in the pull off at the bridge in my new Nemo tent, this thing is seriously cool! It was an early night doing some reading, although a family with dogs came late and were setting up their own tent and making a racket.

I was up at 5 Saturday morning after a chilly night. Seth, one of the owners of Rangeley Adventure Company, told me they had snow a few days before! After some breakfast, I was on the water by 6. This section is notoriously tricky as it can be very low water later in the season. But we had had plenty of rain and this wasn’t an issue for me. The first couple of miles were mostly flat water but moving swiftly. I did have to navigate some fallen trees. Fasanger Falls came next with a 1.5 mile portage around this. Seth had given me pointers of running it, but my boat really is not good in white water and I opted not to attempt it.

After the portage there were more class I and II rapids which were challenging enough in my boat. I was packed light since I was only going for the day, and I think this changed how my boat handles with a different weight distribution. Whatever the case I was having a hard time in the rapids and the currents were strong. More than a couple times I ended up going down rapids backwards which is not fun. I managed not to dump the boat but I did take some water over the bow a couple times.

I got to one of the bridges and hit a rock pretty good. This must have stressed a previous scrape because I started taking on water. I knew that after the bridges it was 3 miles before Kennebago Road, which is the last take out before some serious rapids. I decided I could make it to Kennebago road without being totally swamped. This section was pretty with meadows and low vegetation, but lots of switch backs which I’ve come to hate. I made it to Kennebago road but had to bail out every 5 minutes or so to keep from having a soaked bum.

I got out at Kennebago Road and strapped on my brand new wheels to really put them to the test. It was about 7 miles to Flagstaff Lake: a little over a mile to route 16, 5 miles down to Stratton, and 0.75 to the boat launch. My new weeks practically drove themselves! It’s mostly down hill to Stratton so the going was easy. I got to my car and called it a weekend. Until the next one!