Mighty Clinton River (MCR) !!: SKIWI Ski Club Paddle Trip

We had just about a perfect day for the Skiwi Ski Club paddle trip yesterday (Saturday June 22, 2013) The river had been hovering around 2.0 the past week and then it looks like an adjustment was made to the dams by the Oakland County Drain Commission (OCDC) and the level was at 1.79 when we put in - which is a great level. We ended up with 20 paddlers in 4 canoes(3 solo canoes) and the rest in kayaks. Nine paddlers rented boats from Clinton River Canoe & Kayak, the rest were private boaters.

I had my Wenonah Vagabond 14 solo canoe already loaded on the Jeep so after getting up a little early it was just a matter of loading up the coolers & supplies and throwing them in the Jeep. Amazing how much stuff you need to take to provide lunch for 20 people! Getting it all in the Jeep was not the issue, we would be taking it all down the river with us so Dale and I would need to carry it all in our boats. We ended up putting my cooler with my personal beverages in John Z's canoe, that proved to be a slight error early on, thirst is a terrible thing on the river (when you are surrounded by water!) I did have some soda in the cooler in my boat so when I caught up with John I grabbed a few other beverages!

On the straight away after Yates Cathy from DTE decided to see if the waters of the Mighty Clinton River really are therapeutic, she seemed to enjoy the cool dip she took since it was pretty hot out! Cathy must also be a member of the Sierra Club as she grabbed onto a tree jutting out from river right to help her exit her boat. She did fine the rest of the trip and never had another problem.

We all stopped at one point to regroup on the side of the river before we reached Ryan road. The plan was to find a nice beach before Ryan and stop for lunch, but we were looking for one that also had a bit of shade and none like that were available so we went past Ryan to the corner just before the pavilion where we found a nice spot big enough for all of us to pull over for lunch. We dined on Subway subs which the girls at the 21 & Van Dyke Utica Subway (Pam and Jessica) made sure each sub was delicious and even had our name written on the wrapper for easy distribution! There was potato salad, coleslaw, pasta salad, chips, pop, juice, water and cookies too!

The river has been groomed and manicured thanks to Jerry and Dale of Clinton River Canoe & Kayak (check out their link on the main page) so it was a great trip from the perspective of not having any portages. The bugs were not too bad and as the day went on the clouds opened up for some nice hot sunny weather. I was talking to a few of the paddlers and we were commenting on how the Mighty Clinton River is as good as some of the great ones in the Northern Lower of MI, like the Pine or Little Manistee, etc. Once you are down on the river you do not see too much of the civilized world and with the foliage all around it can even be quite peaceful with the birds singing in the trees!

I believe everyone on this trip had been in a kayak before, so that helped. Linda P. had gone out with Dale the week before to prepare for the trip and she did very well, she is looking for a kayak now! Lee B. paddled with John Z. in a Coleman 15 canoe and I witnessed a few tense moments in some of the corners but they made it through fine, which is good because they were carrying my personal cooler with the rest of my supplies! Tim & Gary had never done the MCR either and were impressed with such a nice river so close to home, their buddy Mario also did great kayaking and had a fine day. Other paddlers included Brian & Kristine, Mike & Cathy, Jenny, Nancy(who is also interested in getting a kayak now), Lee & David, Lori & Curt, Bill, Rob & Debby. Debby paddled her Old Town Prospector 119, a 11'9" solo boat, all the way down with her single blade paddle! She did great and maneuvered right past a few sticky spots with ease!

When we finished up at Heritage park on Van Dyke I had my 13' Hurricane Tampico XL that Brian wanted to check out because he is interested in buying it. Brian paddled it downstream a little then back upstream around the corner and back to the landing. He did good and looks good in the boat! Everyone packed up and started leaving, I got caught in one of the (very) isolated thundershowers! There was lightening and thunder and huge drops of rain coming down like cats & dogs for around 15 minutes. I jumped in Dale's van and waited out the storm a bit, then went over to the restroom and changed into some dry clothes before heading home myself.

It was a great day on the river!

I'll probably have to update this posting later after some people send me a few pictures, but I will put a few of mine here for now.