Mighty Clinton River (MCR) !!: After Work 2.8 and Great!

Once again there were predictions of some severe weather and a flood watch was in effect for SE MI last night. Doug had asked if we were going to hit the river and I told him I'd play it by ear and check the gage in the morning. Well the gage was over 4 feet this morning and my boat was already loaded, so the plan was to do Avon & Livernois to Yates after work. As I left the D I hit heavy traffic on Northbound I-75 just past I-94 and soon learned there was a 3 car accident at Caniff! That put me over a half hour behind, but Jarrett and Dale were joining us so by the time I arrived at A&L the shuttle was run and we were ready to hit the river! As we geared up 4 guys pulled up with kayaks and no PFD's! We warned them about attempting the river at this level and also that the police will issue tickets if you don't have a life vest with you. They took our advice and headed out to get some PFD's. After that Jarrett's neighbor and 3 of his friends pulled up with only 1 PFD among them, oh well! We launched closer to 5:30pm and were on our way while trying to keep an eye on Jarrett's friends. By the time we hit the bike bridge, they already had a swimmer! One of the guys was a bit too heavy for his kayak and decided (wisely) to hike back to the truck and wait it out. Some time before or around Rochester another guy swam and lost his paddle, so he decided to pull out.

As we approached Diversion street the 4 guys who went to get PFD's were launching. Then as we went through Rochester Road rapid a bicycle police patrolman was on the bank watching us. The wave was too washed out for surfing and as I went around the corner I saw a kayak at the launch site and a swimmer in the water! Good thing these guys were all wearing PFD's, between the possibility of a ticket and a swim, it was a good choice! Before we got to the Scary Corridor another one of their party swam, we think they pulled out since later we came across a couple paddlers who started in Auburn Hills and never saw those guys.

The river was pushy and the level started out at 2.83 and ended up around 2.6 by the time we finished. Doug did very well for his first high water run. Hopefully the water will get down below 2.0 for Saturday's rescheduled Paddlepalooza race! We did see another party of guys on the river who are planning to be at the Paddlepalooza and were also interested in the race going on further downriver on the MCR around 3pm the same day (June 15th). http://www.utica-events.com/# is the link for the Utica Riverwalk Festival. Predictions on the weather sound like it could be a good weekend for paddling, stay tuned for more on that! So you could paddle the palooza in the morning from Squirrel & Auburn to Avon & Livernois, then just paddle down to Ryan for the heck of it and race from there down to Van Dyke after that! There is some discussion of this going on.

Well it's getting late and I gotta get to bed, so here are a few pictures from today's trip, enjoy!