May to July! Low water and Paddlepalooza, 6 Rivers Too!

Well, it's been a while since my last post, May 8th or so.  Since then we have been in a sort of a drought with rain and river levels way below normal. Lots of work was done on the river on May 10th and 11th, on the 11th the infamous "Vortex of Death" was pretty much removed with 3+ hours of work by 3 strong men!  Thanks! 

On May 17th a pre-Paddlepalooza run discovered a very large jam which required a portage.  The City of Auburn Hills was aware of it and it was actually (barely) cut through for the Paddlepalooza.  (more on that later)

Over Memorial Day Weekend, many logs were thrown into the river, possibly by the damn beavers!  These were cut into smaller more manageable pieces! 

For the Paddlepalooza, the Oakland County Drain Commission did NOT come through!  The water was way below average and the "race" was grueling!  It was more like a hike than a paddle!  But as they say (whoever "they" are) - 'A bad day on the river is better than a good day at work!'
There were around 40 or so boaters on the water that day and they earned every yard of river they walked!

On June 10th we joined Curt and Lori for an "Upper" MCR paddle from Elizabeth Lake Road into Cass Lake to Dodge Park No. 4.  It was a wonderful trip and everyone had a great time!

On June 13th an organized trip down the river with "6 Rivers Adventure League" was made.  The run was from Ryan to Van Dyke (Heritage Park) and there were around 25 or 30 people, it was a technical run with low water but a very nice evening.

A few more paddle trips were taken on June 24th and 26th.  There was quite a large group on the 26th.  Also, our friends at Clinton River Canoe & Kayak (Jerry and Rene Reis) aka Outdoor Escorts,  found out they will be running the "Boathouse" in downtown Mt. Clemens across from the Gazebo - Congratulations!  I am not sure of all the details, but once I find out I'll post the info here. 

Not the MCR, but I was up in Mio/Fairview and ran the Au Sable river July 1st from Mio to Cummings Landing.  It was a good trip with lots of scenery and wildlife!

On July 3rd (my birthday!) we had some strong stroms come through and dump some water.  Dale made a trip down the river and on July 4th he made a run with Linda P. and didn't have his saw!  There were a few trees down.  On July 5th we took an afternoon paddle from Ryan to Van Dyke with some new friends Dale and Johnathon, first time on moving water and they did great!

Richey G. and Jim McH. made a run down the Paint Creek on the 4th and had and obstruction free run with some decent flow.  Jim made a second run so it must have  been good!

A final note to someone who emailed me, tried to get back with you but it didn't go through.  The question was where could you go down with your kids. Here is the breakdown.  The Upper MCR from Elizabeth Lake Rd. to Cass Lake/Dodge #4 State Park is easy.  The Auburn Hills section from Squirrel and Auburn to Avon & Livernois is not too bad but only good if there is some water otherwise it would be a hike like the Paddlepalooza!  Avon & Livernois to Yates (3 hours) is the fastest most gradient section and is an advanced area if the water is above 1.75 on the Auburn Hills gage.  Yates to Ryan is an hour long run and is on the easy side.  Ryan to Van Dyke is 2 hours and considered easy at lower water.  The section through Sterling Heights' Dodge Park (Van Dyke to Garfield or so) is not being cleared and has many jams with nasty portages. (watch out for poison ivy)
The Budd Park (Clinton River Road) to Mt. Clemens (either Shadyside Park at Gratiot or the actual Downtown area with take out at the YMCA) is an easy stretch.  Don't take the spillway on that last route, turn Left at the spillway.  I'll try and post a more detailed blog note to detail all the runs with put in and take out spots and more descriptions. 

Thanks for reading my blog!  It is 12:30am and I needs to gets to bed!  (I may go back and update this blog some time to also add more detail and more pictures, just wanted to get this thing updated!)

Until next time, maybe we'll see you on the river!

Rick

Big Saw vs Big Tree!

Well thanks to Jerry's BIG SAW and Dale's sawmanship, the BIG TREE is out of the way!  Where it will end up we do not know but we shall see!

Good job boys!

May Day May Day May Day

Hey it's May!  Happy Sinko de Mayo! (Updates Below: Pictures also Added)
I'll have to check my Dale Mail's and see exactly what has been up since last month, but Dale and Jerry, along with Red Boat Tom have been hard at work as usual keeping the channel clear!  Yates to Heritage Park on Van Dyke is pretty much clear and the timing of high water and my schedule has kept me off the river!  The other night (Thursday May 3rd) some pretty strong T-Storms rolled through and the Auburn Hills gage hit around 4.6!  We have not seen that level for quite a while.  As expected there are some new obstructions.  There is a HUGE tree across the river right after Rochester Road.  After you cross under the bridge and make the left and right turns and through the big whirlpool but before you make the sharp right towards 'the scary part' of the river, there is the an old dead tree that is across the whole river, it's almost 3.5 feet in diameter I am sure!  You can actually walk all the way across the river there.  That will be dealt with soon because the portage is not nice.

(Here is the tree across the river with the guys portaging their sea kayaks!)

Dale and I were finishing up a "Cantina Ride" with the Skiwi Ski Club and were trying to locate the jam when we saw 3 guys in sea kayaks coming down!  We warned them of the obstruction and actually found it just as they were coming across it.  The portage is on river right, but a little tight since it is right at the problem spot.  They made it through pretty good and we met them at the 2nd Street take out, they took out at the beginning of the seawall.  We gave these guys some info on this blog and the Skiwi club, we'll probably see them around some time.

I'd of liked to been paddling today, but the bike ride was pretty cool and we had a good time.  Tomorrow is the Royal Oak Brewery 'Mug Club' appreciation event where I get to drink and eat free for 3 hours so that is where I'll be, but Dale is supposed to join Jarret and possibly John B for a run on the river.

I can't find my camera so I do not have any pictures to post today, but I'll check for some  pictures from  the Dale Mails and make another post soon.

Here are the updates with some of the activity on the river since the previous post on April 8th:
Jarret took some friends down on the 15th and someone fell in.  On the 22nd the weather got pretty cold and the water was low, (1.39) so no trips that day.  So here are a couple of old pictures from quite a few years ago but not exactly sure when -

Dale styling in a classic Dagger Encore boat

Ed, Rick, Rob & Red Boat Tom

(these were all taken just past Rochester College at the high bank where there used to be a house at the top)

There was a hike in the Bloomer area on the 22nd with the GM Ski Club.  The next picture is what is thought to be the ruins from the base of an old ski jump built back in 1926. 

Here is a couple of pictures from back in the day when the jump was active:

Here is the link for Bloomer Park info:

http://www.highpointnc.gov/revize/repository/rochesterhills/city_services/uploads/BL_Points_of_Interest.pdf

I'll have to make a post just about Bloomer Park some day, but for now, back to the river reports!

A little woody debris management was also done on a quick trip April 29th.   Notice the Green sign in the background where Jerry is cutting, these are the new signs put up by the local authorities to identify exact postions via GPS coordinates in case you are on the river and need to call for assistance.  I think orange or neon pink would have been a better color choice!  (it's in the 3rd picture, look hard! LOL!)

On May 1st, Outdoor Escort's (Jerry and Rene Reis) took a group of Macomb County Sheriff's down the river to survey the Yates to Heritage Park.  The Deputy's used the Freedom Hawk Kayaks (designed by a guy from MI) to go on this trip.  These kayaks have outriggers built into them that swing out from the back and allow you to stand on the kayak and possibly use them for rescue.

On May 3rd Jerry and Dale once again did some clearing on the Yates to Heritage section and were 'cuttin some cotton' (cottonwood that is!)

That pretty much is what has gone on along the Mighty Clinton River since end of April/beginning of May.  Today a few people are planning to hit the river, but I'll be hitting the Royal Oak Brewery for the annual "Mug Clubber Appreciation Event", I get to eat and drink for three hours free! 

Oh, one last picture of the progress on the bridge work at Avon & Livernois.  They are doing the Avon Road bridge now and as soon as that is finished they will begin on the Livernois Road bridge.  I have heard this bridge will be done around Memorial Day.

Upcoming events will be the June 2nd Paddlepalooza and the June 10th Waterford Section paddle with Lori, Curt and company.  Here are a few pics of them on the "Upper MCR"! :)

See you on the river!

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