One of the more logistically tricky parts of organising our Northern Forest Canoe Trail (NFCT) adventure was figuring out how to get to the start and how to get home at the end. With previous trips we’ve been able to book up most parts of our transport well in advance, but as we weren’t sure when we’d finish the trail, planning the return journey was a bit more ad-hoc. Initially we contacted the NFCT using their contact us page and they suggested a few options, but as this could vary wildly based on where you are from, this time we’ll just let you know what we ended up doing. Hopefully this will help you if you’re looking to get there and back too.

Getting to the Start

We have broken down getting to the start of the trail into a number of legs. We started our adventure at home in The Midlands of the UK with five people, meeting up with a sixth at the airport.

Leg 1 - Our House to Heathrow Airport

Believe it or not, for the number of people we had to move at this point it was cheaper for us to get a taxi than use public transport! We got everyone that was travelling with us to our house the night before (which involved some shuttling of cars),then in the morning the taxi company picked us all up and dropped us at the airport. This was by far the easiest part of the journey.

British Airways plane with 3 Jet Bridges

Leg 2 - Heathrow Airport to Boston Logan Airport

Unsurprisingly we jumped on a plane for this one. We flew British Airways. Not much to report on this one apart from Robert being taken to one side by security and being accused of being a YouTuber. Apparently carrying camera equipment in a Pelican case, and being dressed like you are going out in the wilderness can do that.

Leg 3 - Boston Logan Airport to a Hostel in Boston

There is a taxi rank outside the airport that does a reasonable trade in getting people around the city. We chose this rather than the public transport options due to the amount of kit we were transporting.

Katrina Staring out of a train window whilst the world flies by

Leg 4 - Hostel in Boston to Hotel in Utica

We walked from the hostel to the train station. We were stopped multiple times by people interested in what we were going to do and wishing us luck, which was surprising but quite nice. We then caught what should have been an 8 hour train ride to Utica. Due to a number of technical delays the travel time was just over 12 hours! If travelling on the train network we would recommend taking your own food. The offering was not great on the train and we were thankful for the snacks we had procured from a supermarket on the way to the station. It was close to midnight when we got into Utica station. We walked from the station to the hotel.

Katrina standing below the neon Motel Christy sign

Leg 5 - Hotel in Utica to Old Forge

This was the lucky bit of sorting out getting to the start. We had made contact with John at Mountain Man Outdoors. John was fantastic at helping us source boats and equipment that we could not take on the plane. He also offered to pick us up from Utica and drop us off at a Motel in Old Forge. This was the key for us to get to the start as the travel links to Old Forge were limited to say the least!

While on the Trail

From this point on we were under our own steam, or we organised shuttles, an article on these and the reasons why we took them will be out as soon as it’s written.

Getting Home Again

As with getting to the start of the trail we have broken this down into a number of legs. We started our homeward journey in Fort Kent with four people. Apart from our flight, none of this was booked in advance of us finishing the trail.

Leg 1 - Fort Kent to Caribou

We attempted to book 2 U-Hauls from Fort Kent, but unfortunately they only had one available. This meant that two of us went from Fort Kent to Caribou to pick up another U-Haul.

It is worth noting at this point that our experience with U-Haul was not what you would say is an easy one. To begin with, the U-Haul website is not accessible in the UK. When we were planning we ended up having to call a local dealership (which also rented U-Haul units) directly, as all U-Haul telephone numbers we could find would not accept international calls. When we were in the USA we were able to call the helpline and they were helpful but were misleading and caused issues later on, which we were thankfully able to rectify with the help of a campsite office phone. When picking up a U-Haul with a UK driving licence be prepared for it to take up to two hours! Their system is not set up for international users. You may also come across representatives that have never had to do this before. One thing that we can say is the local representatives were incredibly helpful, just restricted by the system they have to use.

Wooden Fort that gives Fort Kent its name — The Historical Fort at Fort Kent. We were lucky enough to be around while the Fort was open, and we got to go inside and read about the history of the surrounding area.
Leg 2 - Caribou to Fort Kent
Once we had picked up another U-Haul, we drove it back to Fort Kent to pick up the other two people (and canoes). It was an experience driving the wrong way around a roundabout (traffic circle), on the wrong side of the road, in a massive truck, for the first time within the first five minutes. In saying that, driving in this part of the USA was much easier than in the UK, as there are bigger roads with a lot less people on them.

The first two U-Hauls that we picked up. We still cannot believe that this was the cheapest way for us to move around the country.
Leg 3 - Fort Kent to Pelletier Campgrounds
We took one U-Haul to Pelletier Campgrounds where we dropped off one of the boats. We managed to sell it on Facebook Marketplace whilst we stayed in Fort Kent to someone who was starting their expedition from the campground the next day.
Leg 4 - Pelletier Campgrounds to Wassamki Springs Campground, Scarborough, Maine
We drove the U-Hauls to the campground through a lightning storm. The staff were incredibly accommodating, as we got to the site near midnight due to the delays earlier in the day. We left when the office opened in the morning to head onward.

Campground covered in trees with a lake n the foreground

Leg 5 - Wassamki Springs Campground to Black Bear Campground, Salisbury, Maine

We spent two nights at this site. We wanted to break up the driving, and did this by going to a nearby water park for the day (as we obviously hadn’t seen enough water during the previous weeks!). It was here we spent over an hour on the phone with U-Haul to sort out the next leg of the journey. It was an interesting call, but we figured out a solution. The issues were around putting Saratoga Springs as a midpoint on our way back to Boston. It turned out to be hundreds of dollars cheaper to change our booking to drop one U-Haul at Saratoga Springs and swap it for another one to get back to Boston!

Canoe in the back of a U-Haul truck with laundry hanging above it on paracord lines

Leg 6 - Black Bear Campground to Saratoga Springs, New York

At this point the group split. Half headed straight back to Boston, whilst we headed to Saratoga Springs to meet back up with John from Mountain Man Outdoors. This was to drop the last boat to be sold on consignment. We couldn’t find a way to ship the canoes back to the UK economically (even though we had really become attached to them at this point), but selling them would also cover our costs of the U-Hauls, and driving to Saratoga also let us see a bit more of the country.

It was a nice drive across to Saratoga Springs, with some spectacular views on the way. We met up with John and dropped off the boat at one of Mountain Man's storage locations. Saratoga Springs is a beautiful town, where we went and had lunch. Robert had a fantastic shave at The Boiler Room Cut and Shave Co and would recommend the service. We swapped out the U-hauls and were on our way again.

Robert before his shave with his adventure beard and after clean-shaven — Robert with his adventure beard, and then again 30mins later without it.

Leg 7 - Saratoga Springs to Boston, Massachusetts

We drove a short way to Albany and spent the night. Due to concerns of the amount of miles we had to cover and the time we needed to get to the airport we were up and out early. We would not recommend driving in Boston if you are not used to driving in hectic cities. It was quite the experience driving the U-Haul into Boston, and not one that Robert is keen to repeat. Due to the fact we were looking to drop the U-Haul back to the dealers on a Sunday the places we could drop it were limited.

Leg 8 - Boston U-Haul Drop-Off to Boston Logan Airport

We tried to find ways to get between these locations, but with a lot of kit to then carry we decided the easiest way for us to get to the airport was by Uber.

Leg 9 - Boston Logan Airport to Heathrow Airport

When booking our flights we guessed when we’d be looking to fly back. We ended up changing the return date, but the charge to do this wasn’t too bad and relatively easy to do using the British Airways website. It was much cheaper to rearrange the return flight than book open-return tickets. Once at the airport some bad weather delayed the flight by a few hours, but we made it back to the UK eventually.

A strip of daylight on the horizon shown through a plane window under the wing

Leg 10 - Heathrow Airport to Our House

Thankfully we were contacted by a friend who offered to pick us up from the airport and take us home. This was an offer we could not refuse. After only getting about 2 hours sleep in the previous 34 hours of the journey we were glad to be back home.

Transport to the start and from the finish of the NFCT