Trip Reports

When I woke up this morning I was excited. Today was the day that we were going on the AuSable River! Before we left, my cat Seamus jumped into the car, so we picked him up and brought him back into the house. He wanted to come along. We left at 8:30 in the morning and drove an hour away to Grayling. There we put in the boats and shuttled the cars. Finally we were off. We paddled for about an hour and a half. I was in the canoe with Lois.
 
We paddled calmly down the river and avoided shallow spots and eddies. It was a beautiful day outside and we enjoyed being outside. We stopped for lunch at a nearby campground landing just off the river. We saw an example of how not to tie your boat when another group’s kayak floated downstream and around the bend. They ran after it as we chuckled to ourselves. We spent the rest of the time telling cooking stories. We set off again and this time I was in the kayak. I learned how to ferry a kayak and ferry across the river. After being out for the first time of the season I had forgotten how much effort a kayak required. I was paddling like crazy.



We stopped for a swim break at 2:00. The water was very refreshing and everyone was floating and splashing around. We even practiced ferrying with ourselves.


We set off again and paddled to our landing point at Stephan Bridge.  We packed up all our stuff and headed to ice cream with all our paddlers. Lois, John and myself headed back home to Traverse City. I can’t wait to go again!

By Gracie Failor, age 12