MCR 2.2

It was sort of uneventful yesterday.
Let's see 

Dale, Tom T., John B., Jarret and Rick met for shuttle at 11am and set up a trip from Avon & Livernois to Ryan. Some other paddlers opted to start later and do the Paint Creek when it got warmer but we have not heard any details of that trip. The weather waffled between cloudy and cold to periods of sun with some warmth. The water was cold and moving good with a gage reading of 2.2 when we launched. Our first stop was just after the high banks where the house used to be, a tree was across the whole river. Dale made one critical cut to open the whole span up and we were on our way. Rochester Rapid

had some great surfing and now with the boat launch just after that there is a good opportunity to "park n play" by taking out there and carrying back to Diversion Street, will have to try that some time.

We quickly made our way down to Rock Island but opted not to stop, in fact we didn't stop until the mandatory portage at the Vortex of Death. We portaged on river left because the right side is muddy and you have to go up a hill and a lot further down river to put back in. The left side portage was "squishy" but there is a path of sorts that we cut through on our previous trips. This take out is a bit difficult because of the steep and deep bank, but the put in and path to it are a lot easier than river right. Shortly after that we had to portage around Yates falls, they didn't look too nice to run!

There were no other mandatory portages or woody debris management sites for the rest of the trip. We stopped at Camp Island and made a fire. Dale had a natural Swedish fire log - a hollow log that he saturated with wax and we doused with kerosene. This log was placed vertical on top of some kindling wood and we quickly had a nice warm fire. We were all impressed at how good this log worked and had a discussion on how to make logs like this from whole logs, we'll see what we come up with.

From the island we quickly arrived at Ryan road and ended our trip. Not too much excitement on this trip, but as usual it was a good trip and the fire was the highlight of the day.

 

Here are some pictures from yesterday's paddle trip.

 

At the "Ancient Ruins" by Kak rapid

A little in boat woody debris management

John B after the Falls

Vortex of Death as viewed from the river left portage

Camp Island with the Swedish Fire Log

Jarrett

Dale

Tom T.