[Rhodes22-list] Memorial Day Plans

[Roger Pihlaja]

Hi Everybody,

Well, my two sons & I have a long 4 day weekend.  We're invited to a wedding on Saturday, so we couldn't go away for the entire time.  Originally, we were going to take Dynamic Equilibrium & explore a section of Michigan's Inland Waterway from the Lake Huron coast at Cheboygan, MI traveling inland west to about Indian River, MI.  This section of the Inland Waterway includes the Cheboygan Lock, the Cheyboygan River, Mullett Lake, Burt Lake, & the Indian River.  A lot of this trip would be motoring with the only sailing being on Burt Lake & Mullett Lake.  GBI's single-handed mast raising system would have gotten a workout, raising & lowering the mast to get under the various low bridges & other low clearance obstacles.

Then, we got all this rain in the last couple of weeks.  In fact, May, 2004 is turning out to be setting a new record for rainfall here in Michigan.  There is a 28.5 mile stretch of the Pigeon River that empties into Mullett Lake that provides some of the best whitewater in the lower penninsula at any time of the year.  With all the heavy rain we've had this month - well surfs up baby!  With the high water in the Pigeon River, this is a totally unique opportunity & we decided to leave Dynamic Equilibrium at home in order to do an overnight kayak trip.

Our float plan calls for launching the 3 kayaks at the Sturgeon River Valley Rd. Bridge about 10 miles east of I-75 & Vanderbilt, MI on Sunday.  We will have all our camping gear on board the 3 kayaks in dry bags.  Since this is a one way river trip, we will have 2 vehicles.  Prior to launch, we will position one of the vehicles at the 1st night's stop at a primative campground in the Pigeon River State Forest near the Red Bridge @ Webb Rd.  Having a vehicle available at the midpoint of the trip gives us more options.  If one of us gets hurt, one of the kayaks gets damaged, the weather is lousy, the river is just impassible due to high water, fallen trees, floating debris, etc; then, we have the option of bailing out after the 1st day.  Assuming we stay Sunday night, we will load the camping gear into the vehicle & carry just the inflated dry bags in the kayaks for floatation on the 2nd day.  We will have to shuttle vehicles around so one of the vehicles is spotted at the take-out point at the Clement Rd. Bridge about 16.5 river miles downstream from our camp site.  The Clement Rd. Bridge is just south of where the Pigeon River empties into Mullett Lake.  The "best" whitewater occurs on the section of river we will encounter on the 2nd day.  This is why we don't want the extra weight of the camping gear in the kayaks & why we do want the extra floatation from the inflated dry bags.  Nearly all of this trip will be within the boundaries of the Pigeon River State Forest.  Normally, the Pigeon River State Forest is pretty popular with morel mushroom hunters at this time of year.  But, it's been so wet that most of the mushroom beds will be underwater.  This is a pretty isolated, wilderness region & we don't expect to see anyone else all weekend.  We do hope to see some wild elk.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium