Trip Reports

July 16 Boardman from Scheck's to Shumsky

Our original plan for today was a nice warm mid-July tour on the Pigeon River, which would likely require numerous portages and perhaps some waist-deep lumberjack work.  However, Mother Nature decided to give us clouds and highs in the low 60s - not really comfortable conditions for a somewhat exploratory trip.

So we changed the venue to the Boardman - a Sunday morning jaunt, going from Scheck's to Shumsky.  Most of the original registrants hopped on board (no pun intended), and we even picked up a few extra paddlers who saw the last minute change on the club website.  Special thanks to Marv, who provided shuttle service.  Paddlers included trip hosts Lois & John, Marlene, Fred (so glad to have him along - his first river trip this summer - and he totally enjoyed the trash picking), Tracie, Jackie, Glenn and Bob.

We had the river pretty much to ourselves - met a couple of fishermen.  Even at Shumsky, there were no people putting in on this cool day.  How nice that we can have a quiet paddling experience on a Sunday without having to drive far from home!

Note: this trip was planned carefully, so as to avoid the West Michigan meetup group.  They had posted a trip from the Forks to BBL with (wait for this one) 38 people!  We were long gone by the time they brought their hordes to the river, and we did not use the accesses that they would be filling up.

Report by Lois, photos by John & Glenn