[Rhodes22-list] Sea Kayaks, Paddling, & Camping Gear Recovered From Johnson Mini Storage!

[ROGER PIHLAJA]

Chris,

The backwater eddy was upstream of the rapids and protected from it by a little sand spit.  We never had to run the rapids.  By going well to the west and then working my way back east along the Wixom Dam’s earthen embankment, I was able to stay out of the strong current and into the eddy.  I have done quite a bit of whitewater and had scouted the site before attempting this.  No, it was not idiot proof!  My brother-in-law is used to us doing stupid stuff like this together.  He regards it as chapter 1 in the Pictured Rocks Sea Kayaking High Adventure Trip.

Roger Pihlaja 
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 21, 2020, at 12:49 PM, Chris Geankoplis <chrisgeankoplis at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Roger, that is better than the landings and Inchon!  I still an not sure
> how you got past the rapids.  Great job.
> 
> Chris Geankoplis
> S?V Enosis
> 
>> On Tue, Jul 21, 2020 at 12:09 PM ROGER PIHLAJA <Roger_Pihlaja at msn.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi All,
>> 
>> Last Saturday, my brother-in-law, Ken Mild drove up from Pennsylvania with
>> his 12 ft LOA aluminum Jon boat.  We drove over to a MDNR boat launch on
>> the West Arm of Wixom Lake.  With the lake level much lower than normal
>> summer pool, the boat launch is closed.  The 1st attached photo shows how
>> much below the level of the launch ramps the water level is now.  But, Ken
>> and I were able to carry the lightweight Jon boat down the slope.  We used
>> my Minn Kota trolling motor to get back to the M-30 causeway, a 1-way
>> distance of about ¾ mile.  The 2nd attached photo shows the rapids under
>> the blown out section of the M-30 causeway now.  Obviously, this is not
>> something you can safely navigate in a Jon boat with a trolling motor!
>> But, I had scouted the site prior to this attempt and there was an eddy
>> just upstream of the rapids.  I was able to tuck the Jon boat into this
>> eddy without getting sucked into the rapids.  Then, we hiked about 300
>> yards over to Johnson Mini Storage, gathered up two kayaks, paddling, and
>> camping gear, and portaged it all back to the Jon boat.  It took 3 trips to
>> portage all this gear.  The 3rd attached photo is Ken by the loaded Jon
>> boat with the two kayaks all rigged for towing.  We motored back to the
>> MDNR launch site, hauled everything back up the hill, loaded the kayaks and
>> gear into/on top of my minivan, and drove home.  Mission accomplished!  We
>> started about 7:00 AM and were back home by 11:00 AM before the real heat
>> of the day.
>> 
>> So, now the SCUBA Shipwreck Diving and Pictured Rocks Sea Kayaking High
>> Adventure Trips can really happen next month.  Life is good!
>> 
>> Roger Pihlaja
>> S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
>> 
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>> Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for
>> Windows 10
>> 
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