diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index cca673c2d..6fcae0e3d 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -41,6 +41,9 @@ find_package(NumPy REQUIRED)
 
 set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++11")
 
+find_package(Boost)
+include_directories(${Boost_INCLUDE_DIRS}) # This was required to find boost for macports
+
 include_directories("${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/include")
 include_directories("/usr/local/include")
 include_directories("${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/thirdparty/grpc/include/")
@@ -139,11 +142,11 @@ add_library(pynumbuf STATIC ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/thirdparty/numbuf/cpp/src/numbuf
 target_link_libraries(pynumbuf ${ARROW_LIB} ${PYTHON_LIBRARIES})
 
 add_executable(objstore src/objstore.cc src/ipc.cc src/utils.cc ${GENERATED_PROTOBUF_FILES})
-target_link_libraries(objstore ${ARROW_LIB} pynumbuf boost_system boost_filesystem)
+target_link_libraries(objstore ${ARROW_LIB} pynumbuf)
 add_executable(scheduler src/scheduler.cc src/computation_graph.cc src/utils.cc ${GENERATED_PROTOBUF_FILES})
-target_link_libraries(scheduler boost_system boost_filesystem)
+target_link_libraries(scheduler)
 add_library(raylib SHARED src/raylib.cc src/worker.cc src/ipc.cc src/utils.cc ${GENERATED_PROTOBUF_FILES})
-target_link_libraries(raylib ${ARROW_LIB} pynumbuf boost_system boost_filesystem)
+target_link_libraries(raylib ${ARROW_LIB} pynumbuf)
 
 get_filename_component(PYTHON_SHARED_LIBRARY ${PYTHON_LIBRARIES} NAME)
 if(APPLE)
diff --git a/src/utils.cc b/src/utils.cc
index c0110aa50..14f26bf83 100644
--- a/src/utils.cc
+++ b/src/utils.cc
@@ -1,13 +1,18 @@
 #include "utils.h"
 
-#if defined(_CPPLIB_VER) && _CPPLIB_VER >= 650
-#include <experimental/filesystem>
-#else
-#include <boost/filesystem.hpp>
-#endif
-
 #include "ray/ray.h"
 
+#include <sys/stat.h>
+#ifdef _S_IREAD  // Visual C++ runtime?
+#include <direct.h>  // _mkdir
+#else
+namespace {
+  int _mkdir(char const* path) {
+    return mkdir(path, S_IRWXU | S_IRWXG | S_IRWXO);
+  }
+}
+#endif
+
 std::string::iterator split_ip_address(std::string& ip_address) {
   if (ip_address[0] == '[') { // IPv6
     auto split_end = std::find(ip_address.begin() + 1, ip_address.end(), ']');
@@ -33,18 +38,32 @@ const char* get_cmd_option(char** begin, char** end, const std::string& option)
   return 0;
 }
 
-void create_log_dir_or_die(const char* log_file_name) {
-#ifdef BOOST_FILESYSTEM_FILESYSTEM_HPP
-  namespace filesystem = boost::filesystem;
-  typedef boost::system::error_code error_code;
-#else
-  namespace filesystem = std::experimental::filesystem;
-  typedef std::error_code error_code;
-#endif
-  filesystem::path log_file_path(log_file_name);
-  error_code returned_error;
-  filesystem::create_directories(log_file_path.parent_path(), returned_error);
-  if (returned_error) {
-    RAY_CHECK(false, "Failed to create directory for " << log_file_name);
+void create_directories(const char* log_file_name) {
+  bool success = _mkdir(log_file_name) != -1 || errno == EEXIST;
+  if (!success) {
+    // If we couldn't create it directly and it didn't already exist, then try to create it from the root...
+    // Note that we keep going until the end even if creating the root fails, because we don't necessarily have access to the root
+    bool stop = false;
+    size_t i = 0;
+    do {
+      stop = log_file_name[i] == '\0';
+      bool delimiter = stop || log_file_name[i] == '/' || log_file_name[i] == '\\';
+      if (!stop) {
+        ++i;
+      }
+      if (delimiter) {
+        std::string ancestor(log_file_name, i);
+        success = _mkdir(ancestor.c_str()) != -1 || errno == EEXIST;
+      }
+    } while (!stop);
   }
+  RAY_CHECK(success, "Failed to create directory for " << log_file_name);
+}
+
+void create_log_dir_or_die(const char* log_file_name) {
+  std::string dirname = log_file_name;
+  while (!dirname.empty() && dirname.back() != '/' && dirname.back() != '\\') {
+    dirname.pop_back();
+  }
+  return create_directories(dirname.c_str());
 }