Spring Cleaning

Well it was supposed to be a cold weekend, while it was not warm, it wasn't too bad out!  Our friends from Indiana had to cancel a trip planned for last Saturday (3/23/2013) and with the prediction for cold conditions none of the Local paddlers wanted to go out.  The sun came out and it was a decent day out with levels around 1.65 feet, but we were not on the river.  A hike was planned for Sunday to go and cut out a log at the stinky pipe, just after the A&L Doctor's Office put-in. 

Prior to  meeting up with the group, I took an early hike at the Holland Ponds area off Ryan Road.  The great blue heron's are back and actively nesting!  A few times they all left the nest and a few seemed to be "fighting" and squawking, pretty cool to see.  On my way to Avon & Livernois I stopped off at Rochester Road bridge, off of Diversion, to see the rapid.  The rapid looked decent and a guy named Adam was testing out his Go Pro camera set up by running the rapid a few times.  Sounded like Adam runs the river on a regular basis and I'm sure we'll see him on the river some time.

At 11am Dale, Michelle, Jerry and I set out from the back parking lot and walked over to where the jam was.  It took 45 minutes of cutting and dragging to get it out, but we got it! 

After that we moved on down the road, down Diversion St to the East and parked in a new place where the road is now paved.  From there we walked across the road into the woods towards the river to seek out the 'bunkers'.  These bunkers were used back in WWII to test flash bombs and the land is supposed to be developed into a park, Bunker Park!  On the way to the first bunker, we stopped and entered the old sewer hole, sounds bad but it's not too bad, really!  We hiked around the bunkers then back along the river and out of the woods back across to our cars.  Not too exciting of a day, but we got a log jam cleared and got in a short hike.

Here are a few pictures from the day.

The heron rookery at Holland Ponds

Adam running Rochester Rapid

 

Michelle ready to go!

 

The jam before it was cleared

 

Dale and daughter Michelle after the jam was cleared

 

Michelle down in the sewer

 

Down in the psychadelic chamber

 

Michelle in the bunker.  Notice the hole used for viewing the flash bombs.

 

Second Street view of river, Kak rapid is up on the right side of this shot.

 

This is between the stinky pipe and the walking bridge on the bike trail

 

 

An older video but I don't think it has been posted yet!

Season Opener!

First trip of the season today!  The Weatherman predicted temp's in the 50's and rain, but the rain never came and the high was 65!  The water level was over 1.7 and rising the whole time we were on the river, I am thinking the gage got near 2.0 while we were on the river.  We launched around 11am at Avon & Livernois (A&L) and had cars shuttled at 2nd St and Ryan.  I took a friend from work, Doug, and he paddled my Dagger Zydeco rec boat, I was in my Pyranha Burn whitewater boat.  The surfing at Rochester was decent!  We stopped at Rock Island and took out there, Dale, John and Jarret continued down to Ryan.  There was one portage at the beginning after you go a few turns past the medical offices, just past the stinky pipe, not too hard.

Doug and I took out at Rock Island and carried our boats from Rock Island back to the 2nd Street parking lot.  The trail was icy and muddy, quie a mess!  I would not recommend this, but it does give you a little more on the trip to 2nd and you can relax at Rock Island if people are continuing on from there. 

 

Doug Palmer, Rick Kuhn, Dale Goolsby, Jarret Schmidt, & John Burak on the first trip of the season for 2013

 

 

The new Avon Road bridge.

 

Surfing at Rochester Road Rapid

 

Jarret, Doug and I.