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To avoid potential parking issues at HWY 28, you might also consider parking in the established parking lot at Northeys Bay Road, then going up the creek, then back down. This can easily be done in a day. I'm not 100% sure about the flow this time of year, but once in early June I paddled up to HWY 28 then back down.
I haven't been there in a couple years, but the parking lot was free and open to anyone with no restrictions. The only restriction I recall seeing was that camping near the parking (within a few hundred metres or something) was forbidden.
There's a portage around High Falls, and about three other portages that are all short. If putting in at Northeys Bay Road there's a bit of a carry/portage past a bit of a swift that's near the road- probably about 100 metres. If you put in right at the road it might be hard to paddle up the swift depending on flow/water levels.
Yes, we ended our trip there, but as my trip report mentioned we started much further up about half way between Burleigh Falls and Apsley. We didn't find parking an issue on 28, maybe we got lucky.
Glad we didn't paddle upstream in many spots. The water was high and would have been a slog. As nice as High Falls is, it is constantly overrun with people on weekends. For us the nicest part of the trip was west of 28 and the bit upstream from Ladder Falls. All of those portages you mentioned were in the trip report. Here it is again:
https://www.canoedaddy.com/Eels-Creek-1-Day/