April 2012 Update and Jams in the Park and Indiana Wants Me

The Ryan Road to Van Dyke section of the MCR were open as of March 19th thanks to Dale, Jerry and Tom (Redboat Tom).  The crew has been hard at work getting the river ready for the unclean masses to descend upon, and our friends from Indiana too!  Dale did get down the river on the 21st and cleared out a reoccurring jam.  The weekend of the 24th no paddling took place, weather was on the cool side and Rob C. was the only one who wanted to go. 

Dale made another trip down the river on the 29th and reported no jams on the Ryan to Van Dyke section again.  The trip was on low water, but that would not last long with some bad weather moving in on the 30th.  Dale was on the river again on Friday (the 30th) along with Jerry and (I think) Tom, a cold front came through with some wild weather, it went from rain to wet snow and cold wind pretty quick.  Jerry had fallen into the river and got wet up to the neck while cutting out a jam, they pulled over and built a fire but he never did get warm. 

Jerry got so cold he didn't paddle on Saturday March 31st when we met the guys from Indiana for our 2nd annual paddle.  Mark, Mike, John, Jim, and Steve fom IN came down for a run down the MCR to join Dale, Jarret and I.  We had 3 kayaks and 5 canoes total.  We had already made plans to run Yates to Van Dyke (Heritage Park) earlier in the week due to the unseasonable low water levels. The big storm raised the level up to around 1.45 so we could have made a run from Avon & Livernois, but decided to stick with the plan.  We had a good cool weather run with one spot where it was 'almost' a portage but we managed to pull our boats across the log.  We stopped at the back of Shelby park and used their fire pit to cook up some steak bites, shrimp boil and shish ka-bobs.  While at the park there were 5 younger paddlers who had 3 kayaks and a deflating raft who were running from Yates to Garfiled!  We saw them again at Heritage and the raft had decided wisely to get out and call for a ride.  Somewhere along the way I noticed my Pyranha Burn was taking on water and found a 3" crack in the bottom!  Duct tape saved the day for me, but unfortunately Pyranha will not cover the boat since it is over a year old (18 months) and it has not really been beat on as much as my previous Pyranha's.  At least they sent me some plastic to "weld" into the bottom, also found out West Marine makes an epoxy that will stick to plastic.

Some scouting was done along the Van Dyke to Edison (W of Schoenherr) section within the Dodge Park park in Sterling Heights.  At least 10 jams were observed from shore.  One of these days a bunch of people, more than just our crew, will need to make an effort to clear the river from Pontiac to Lake St. Clair.  Like that will happen soon!  LOL

Here are a few pictures of some of the jams, didn't have a camera with me on the Indiana run, sorry.  Maybe those guys will send some pictures.

These are some of the typical woody debris situations we 'deal with!

Since the water has been low, we have made a few bike trips along the river.  I was pleasantly surprised at the work done on the mt. bike trails in Dodge Park.  So surprised I even tried a 'log jump' and failed!  I thought I separated my shoulder, but luckily it was just sore for  a few days. Dale and I were riding on Good Friday when it happened and today is Easter, it is just getting to where I can raise my arm without too much pain.  I was worried about my paddling season!  (and drinking beer was an effort too!!) ;)  Biking season is upon us, the Skiwi's will start the Cantina rides on April 21st and then again on May 12th.  ( www.skiwiskiclub.com for info check the calendar page)

Rick