Little Spruce Falls
This waterfall is one of the most disappointing spots I’ve ever visited over years of exploring. Little Spruce Falls is a set of rapids far up on the Herman-Nestoria Swamp, a small tick mark on a topo map that is little more than a few rocks along an otherwise calm and marshy headwater area. Two main drops make up the falls, one a long chain of rapids in the midst of thick brush and the upper some small plunges between rocks, with a narrow logging bridge splitting the two.
The swamp is pretty, though.
Directions
To reach the start of the hike first get to Herman, located on a side road off of 41 just south of L’Anse. From Herman Road turn onto Lystila/Lahti, bearing right at the first fork, driving 1.1 miles before turning right on Summit Road. 1.6 miles south on Summit will lead you to the start of Celotex Road, once one of the main gateways into the Curwood/Peshekee Highlands (its now gated a few miles in). Turn left on Celotex and go 1 mile, turning right on Tama Siding. Park at .5 miles before the road travels over Tama Creek (a wide swamp).
Follow the Tama Siding road on foot past the green gate, taking the right fork a short distance in. Stick to the main road as there are multiple logging roads branching off. The main falls sits feet away from the bridge over Sturgeon River, and the lower falls is a short distance downstream past the swamp and weaving branching rapids section.
Photographs
Visits
Seen in October and November.
- a tiny trickle
Upper Sturgeon Falls is made up of two sets of drops. Neither one of them truly deserve to be called rapids, let alone waterfalls. The lower set tumbles around small boulders and splits occasionally along the swampy undergrowth, with a single tiny drop over bedrock, an inch or two high, near the bottom. When I reached the top of the lower set I stopped, shocked. Beyond a small pool of water lay a bridge, a road, over the waterfall I had bushwhacked miles for, had gotten lost for, and had spent so long finding.
- sheets of rain and sleet on a blustery wind
This time we took the railroad tracks, and it was almost too easy to reach Sturgeon River, then off the open tracks into the tangled brush surrounding the river. We were probably within a few hundred yards of Upper Sturgeon Falls; Faith checked her watch and wanted to be back at the car before dark. Disappointed we turned around, and the knowledge that I had failed here yet again weighed heavily on me.
All we had to do was follow the rescue path out. We pushed our way east, retracing our path out; there was no recollections, no sights that looked familiar from that terrible night. Cory and I pounced on our rock, overly excited to find the tiny boulder sitting sadly on the leaf-strewn floor, and Katie spotted the camera calmly sitting on a mossy rock, undamaged. We never found Faith's camera. As for my extra clothes they're still out there, a reminder of how stupidly ambitious some ideas are.
I wanted to try a new approach to Upper Sturgeon Falls, a destination that had slipped out of my grasp too many times already this year. When I saw the fork in the road it felt too early and we turned left instead. This was the first mistake. We never found the falls, only a large, dark swamp with nothing but thick swamp below and grassy wetlands above, and we spent that night huddled around a flat rock waiting on a rescue.
Comments
4 comments
Best hike ever.
Depends on your definition of hike. The hiking and waterfalls were excellent - the sitting in a dark, cold, wet swamp not so excellent.
I like to come back here every once and a while and relive my youth. Just got a job with some $$$ and vacation time (FINALLY). Planning my next trip to go get lost in the UP again.
This is still one of my favorite UP memories, now that the trauma has (mostly) worn off. I'm totally stoked for your return, hope it's a good one.
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