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- Feb 28, 2007
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Came back last night from an easy canoe/backcountry trip with my wife. We wanted to go somewhere close by and I picked out the Manistee National forest, lower penninsula, Michgan just for the proximity of it to us. But then she asked if we might be able to rent a canoe, so a little on-line sleuthing and I found this place called Chippewa Landings that both rents you a canoe but also hauls you and your gear upstream. You then paddle back to the landing spot, get into your vehicle and go. No portages, no rapids and a 5 km/hr current that keeps you moving. A perfect easy paddle and one to get my wife motivated enough to want to purchase a good canoe for ourselves. So that was the plan, and it worked great.
We were dropped off at the Sharon Bridge site recommended to us by the guide as a good, but easy 2 day float. Two people good at paddling probably could have completed this in a day and a half pushing it, but that really wasn't the goal here. I don't often get to do backcountry camping with my wife so I try to make it enjoyable when we do get out. That means bringing out a tent, good food etc. With a canoe, hauling all that stuff is much easier.
Snapping turtle
We had to share the river with other canoeists, rafters and tubers. Actually, there are so many twists and turns that encounters with others weren't all that often and all you had to do was overtake them into the next bend to get some peace. The tubers that were family were nice and fun, but the inebriated flotillas could be really annoying, both in being obnoxious, then taking up most of the channel and their incessant hooting and howling. Fortunately, we only ran into 2 such groups over our 50 miles of actual water navigation. One family of tubers had come across a lost dog and they were trying without a lot of success to coax it along the shore to the next river landing a short distance away. The dog had one of the GPS collars on and full info on its collar, plus it was friendly albeit a bit lost and confused. We agreed to cart the pup up to the landing site and one of the tubers already contacted the owner by phone so it was a simple task. The dog wasn't all that canoe friendly but we managed.
This one reminded me of my Florida tromping with a huge gator rising from the Michigan river bed!
Four hours paddling isn't all that hard in a river that keeps pushing you along. But neither of us are particularly used to sitting in the seat that long and I was paddling 80% of the time so it still does wear on the shoulders towards the end of the day.
The first night we camped out on a hill. Landing our canoe in the bottoms and climbing a gentle hilltop to pitch the tent. I started our fire by bowdrill using balsam fir as hearth and spindle and made the tinder bundle from basswood inner fibers and grapevine all collected on site. We had a good meal of peppers, green onions and kolbassa cooked in one of those side kick pasta packages. We also had a great swim after dinner. Becky loved the bush chair!
Next morning, was a longer paddle day with about 6 h on the water making a bit more distance so that the last morning we would have an easier time and enable us to drive the 5 h trip back home.
The next camp sight was a perfect little woodland spot among huge cedars, balsam firs, spruce and walnut. I found some dead leaning walnut to burn and again started up our fire with bowdrill. I tried coaching Becky through most of it and she got the technique with smoke. Just didn't have the strength to bear down hard enough to get her coal. Who could blame her after 6 h paddling that day. The video captures her during her attempt. I finished off the bowdrill and we settled in for another night. This time, we were lazy on the food and we just cooked the rest of the kolbassa on sticks and ate them in wraps. That and a little bit of hooch with tang/strawberry koolaid made us forgets our aches and pay less attention to the mosquitoes and deer flies.
After a brief 2 h paddling the last morning we arrived at our landing site. We took turns driving allowing each other a catnap on the way home. Overall, the trip was quite good. A great chance to see the river from its own banks and cover a large area of landscape. I imagine going here in late fall and during mid-week would leave the river almost entirely to yourself (and a few hunters). Plus the colours would be amazing to see. Total cost for the canoe rental (3 days) and hauling fee was $135.00. What a deal!
[youtube]GSNIpm504w4[/youtube]
We were dropped off at the Sharon Bridge site recommended to us by the guide as a good, but easy 2 day float. Two people good at paddling probably could have completed this in a day and a half pushing it, but that really wasn't the goal here. I don't often get to do backcountry camping with my wife so I try to make it enjoyable when we do get out. That means bringing out a tent, good food etc. With a canoe, hauling all that stuff is much easier.
Snapping turtle
We had to share the river with other canoeists, rafters and tubers. Actually, there are so many twists and turns that encounters with others weren't all that often and all you had to do was overtake them into the next bend to get some peace. The tubers that were family were nice and fun, but the inebriated flotillas could be really annoying, both in being obnoxious, then taking up most of the channel and their incessant hooting and howling. Fortunately, we only ran into 2 such groups over our 50 miles of actual water navigation. One family of tubers had come across a lost dog and they were trying without a lot of success to coax it along the shore to the next river landing a short distance away. The dog had one of the GPS collars on and full info on its collar, plus it was friendly albeit a bit lost and confused. We agreed to cart the pup up to the landing site and one of the tubers already contacted the owner by phone so it was a simple task. The dog wasn't all that canoe friendly but we managed.
This one reminded me of my Florida tromping with a huge gator rising from the Michigan river bed!
Four hours paddling isn't all that hard in a river that keeps pushing you along. But neither of us are particularly used to sitting in the seat that long and I was paddling 80% of the time so it still does wear on the shoulders towards the end of the day.
The first night we camped out on a hill. Landing our canoe in the bottoms and climbing a gentle hilltop to pitch the tent. I started our fire by bowdrill using balsam fir as hearth and spindle and made the tinder bundle from basswood inner fibers and grapevine all collected on site. We had a good meal of peppers, green onions and kolbassa cooked in one of those side kick pasta packages. We also had a great swim after dinner. Becky loved the bush chair!
Next morning, was a longer paddle day with about 6 h on the water making a bit more distance so that the last morning we would have an easier time and enable us to drive the 5 h trip back home.
The next camp sight was a perfect little woodland spot among huge cedars, balsam firs, spruce and walnut. I found some dead leaning walnut to burn and again started up our fire with bowdrill. I tried coaching Becky through most of it and she got the technique with smoke. Just didn't have the strength to bear down hard enough to get her coal. Who could blame her after 6 h paddling that day. The video captures her during her attempt. I finished off the bowdrill and we settled in for another night. This time, we were lazy on the food and we just cooked the rest of the kolbassa on sticks and ate them in wraps. That and a little bit of hooch with tang/strawberry koolaid made us forgets our aches and pay less attention to the mosquitoes and deer flies.
After a brief 2 h paddling the last morning we arrived at our landing site. We took turns driving allowing each other a catnap on the way home. Overall, the trip was quite good. A great chance to see the river from its own banks and cover a large area of landscape. I imagine going here in late fall and during mid-week would leave the river almost entirely to yourself (and a few hunters). Plus the colours would be amazing to see. Total cost for the canoe rental (3 days) and hauling fee was $135.00. What a deal!
[youtube]GSNIpm504w4[/youtube]
