Participants: John Heiam, Lois Goldstein, Marlene Puska, Wayne Andersen, Will McCord, Jacqui Morgenstein, and Pam Lassers
Although July 5th was an official holiday, and part of a three day weekend, we saw no other paddlers on the river until we were within a half mile of the take-out. The river level was down almost two feet from its normal summer flow. This made for a lot more maneuvering as we had to avoid many shallow gravel bars. We also encountered a large number of trees in the water, but only one had to be moved to allow us to pass. This is not a section of river where you can sit back and just float down the river. There are very few cottages along this section of the Betsie, so there was a real wilderness feel to this trip. Three of the participants had never seen this section, and they were all impressed by how pretty it was. I love all the small cold creeks that enter from cool shaded ravines in the forest. Wayne picked up the most trash, but we all made a contribution to improving the landscape.
Photos by John
One of the many small streams entering the river
The crew is rearranging some logs (note: we never remove woody debris from the river)
Wayne makes his way down the river
Lois and Pam on the river
Will picks up a piece of litter, while Wayne continues down river
Jacqui enjoys her first trip of the year, after returning to the States a few weeks ago
