My reasoning for the Epic trip was I have paddled 20 miles in a day during a previous Pine River adventure race, flatwater canoe racing, and canoe camping on the AuSable, so why not paddle the entire Upper Pine section, above my favorite Dobson to Low section, in one day, and save a 2nd day for another river trip instead?! So, the idea was hatched, to see if there would be any takers. What I hadn't expected was a group of 8, but a couple of my younger Cherry Capital Cycling Club girlfriends are tackling a lot of new challenges this yr, and wanted to come along, too. Although they are not as experienced river paddlers, they had easily manuevered the Jordan recently, and I knew they had the endurance to complete it, along with 4 other interested TAPC members, Jack Kurtz, Jocelyn Trepte, John Walton & Bob Buryta.
Since we had heavy rain the weekend before, the river was up again, but nothing compared to the May 3rd flood, so we were prepared for some portages. We had to tow our boats up & down the river bank for a mammoth logjam (Mark & Jake cleared an opening later that afternoon), through the branches of a downed tree (faster & easier than portaging, after we sawed off a few branches), and over & under some logs, but all this added to the adventure! I had anticipated that we would be able to paddle approx 4 mph, so our trip would take 6-7 hrs, plus stops for lunch, bathroom, and portages, and ended up 5.5 hrs of paddling, 1 hr of breaks for lunch & snacks, and 1 hr of portages, so completed as planned. Since the river was still a little above normal. the rocks, logs & sandbars were better covered, less exposed. We witnessed the work of the flood, with logs left 4 ft high on top of the riverbank, and the massive logjam, where the river has changed its course. It was a L-O-N-G day, but we had sunny, warm weather, several stops to stretch our legs, the bugs weren't too pesky, and only one swim! We enjoyed paddling past 6-Mile & 8-Mile Bridges, lunch at Skookum North , Walker & Lincoln Bridges, snack at Elm Flats, all the way to Dobson Bridge on this National Wild & Scenic River through the Manistee National Forest. No t-shirts for this marathon, but Mission Accomplished!
Trip Report & photos by Trip Leader: Sara "Energizer" Cockrell
walkin de boats through branches, versus portaging, Laurie & John Walton
shove over downed tree, Laurie, Jack Kurtz, Tami & Sara (photo by Jocelyn)
Nancy, Tami & Laurie
portage up steep, slippery muddy bank, through woods & back down at massive logjam
Nancy, Laurie, Tami, Jocelyn & Sara at finish at Dobson Bridge, we made it, high 5!
See separate Photo Page for more photos.