Deboullie Public Lands

Must check-in at a North Maine Woods checkpoint and pay the hefty entrance plus camping fees to stay in this public land. After quite a drive, cross your fingers and hope people aren't occupying multiple sites or holding for others (we ran into this issue--sites seem to be two right next to each other throughout this area, so people would set up a tent or place their trailer in order to not have a neighbor right on top of them.) We got there late morning on a Friday and grabbed the only site that was open after being told we'd have plenty to choose from when checking in (which, I'm sure there would have been several open if people weren't occupying multiple sites). But anyway, my husband and I were happy enough with our site--just frustrated with some of the other campers making the experience more difficult than it needed to be. The weird part was everyone cleared out Saturday morning/early afternoon and we had the whole section to ourselves. Besides all that, great hiking and kayaking in the area.

Access is gained by private gravel logging roads leaving Route 161 in St. Francis, or off Route 11 in Portage, Maine. There is a check point when you drive through the logging facility area at the start of the main logging roads. You must check in for arrivals and departure. They will give you a map of the sites and trails. The drive is a good hour on dirt roads from there. Follow the red RRC signs and you will find it no problems.

Sites are all spread out. We stayed at Perch Dam mostly because our tent is 10x12 feet and 6 feet high. Majority of other tent sites have platforms for your tent which are much smaller.

The hiking trails are some of the best I have been on at such a site. They could use some more signs at intersections but with the trail map we got from the checkpoint we were able to figure them out. The view points you can hike up to are beautiful. Two of them, have log benches to sit down at the top and admire the view. Several trails I took had rock stairs and wooden stairs. If you hike to the fire tower from Perch Dam side, its flat all the way up to the mountain, that's where it gets crazy. like going straight up at some parts. Pretty awesome, but pretty hard if you are not in shape. My legs were shaking at the top, I barely had the strength to climb the fire tower lol. I got within like 15 more steps to the top, and I was like nope, going down. Wish I would have kept going, looking back. So don't give up even if your legs are jello!

There are several lakes around. We brought our kayaks, looking for moose. Did not find any, just a lot of tracks, and their poop. While hiking we did find a Pine Martin which was awesome. I never seen one of those in real life before.

There is nothing really within 1.5 hours or so from the camp sites so don't forget anything. There is a General Store in town but if you need certain things or want a big selection you will have to drive another 45 minutes to Walmart. Use google maps and pick one, there's two in different directions. We kinda broke our French Press second day there... had to drive to Walmart for a new one, cannot live without coffee you know. So that was like a 1/2 day trip there and back. Crazy. Rest of the time was great. We basically hiked every day. My husband is a birder so he was trying to get King Fisher pix and whatever else all the time. I did a lot of reading in my hammock.

Only thing that sucked, is the logging. We could hear them working, like a buzzing bee all the time during week days past 10pm at night which was annoying. We kind of wanted to get away from everything and everyone. Other than that, this place is pretty awesome. Check out their website. Enjoy.