July 24 Sturgeon River
Lois Goldstein | Published on 7/24/2023
Fortunately it was a gorgeous day, since several folks ended up in the water, by choice or chance.
We were glad that this trip involved just six people, namely Wayne and Leslie, Paul and Irene, and John and Lois. We had no trouble handling the shuttle ourselves, with Paul bringing back the drivers, and later on, the other two vehicles toting the Marcussens and their boats. That was the easy part.
The weather today was absolutely stunning, although we expected it to be hot; in fact, it was just pleasantly warm with bright sunshine. That made getting in the water an easy decision.
I didn't choose the best spot to enter my solo canoe, but Leslie was there to help stabilize things while I hopped in. Irene waited across the stream while Paul had to readjust his foot pegs, and then I helped him out getting the giant spray skirt on his 10-ft Pungo. We each took in a little bit of water in some of the wave trains, but other than that, everything went very smoothly during the stretch from Wolverine down to our lunch spot at Rondo Road. At lunch time, we had some discussions about various capsizes that we had each been involved in.
About 10 minutes after lunch, Wayne and Leslie, paddling his beautiful red fiberglass tandem canoe, failed to negotiate a very tight turn underneath the tree, and I watched as I saw them turn turtle. The first remark was how refreshing the water was. Nothing was lost, and Paul retrieved one of their kneeling pads, while I scouted a good place for them to empty the boat. They were a bit relieved that John & Irene were both around the corner, so we don't have any photographic evidence of their swim. If there are no pics, maybe it didn't really happen.
Ten minutes later, we arrived at the "maze". The tandem canoe went straight to the left, and ended up portaging. Then John proceeded through and radioed back to me that I should be sure to stay right immediately after the first tight slot. I did stay right, but turned a little too soon and ended up broadside on a submerged log with water hitting the side of my canoe. I kept my downstream lean for about 10 minutes, and eventually Wayne walked back to help extricate my boat. Did I mention that he had to wade across the river, which was very deep and fast at that point? What a guy! At the same time, Paul got out upstream and was thrashing through the brush to see if he could assist me, but Wayne got there first. Meanwhile, further downstream, John was waiting with a throw bag in hand in case I might need it. He had gotten out of his kayak and left it on a gravel bar. But while he was blocking the current with his body, the kayak floated away. Note: this is not the first time John has lost his boat on the Sturgeon River. It happened once before about 10 years ago, when one of the members of our group retrieved it as he was assisting some rental kayakers.
We decided that the safest alternative was to have Paul and Irene portage around the maze on river left. But then it was time to find John's kayak, which I spotted about a hundred yards downstream, stuck in a downed tree. Thank goodness is boat is orange, so it was pretty easy to find. Retrieving it, though, required some intricate teamwork for all of us.
Leslie and Wayne paddled further downstream, stopped on river right,, and then he hiked back up and waded into the river, chest deep, to get his hands on the kayak. Meanwhile, Paul and John (wearing Irene's PFD) were standing in the water on river left. There were three amusing attempts at tossing the throw bag, one where it wasn't even attached to anything at the far end. Eventually Wayne towed the kayak downstream, and John walked down to reach it. I ended up with two rescue bags attached to my own canoe. But we were all safe, and glad that we could manage the situation in a calm way, and we were all in good spirits.
The rest of the trip passed uneventfully, and we encountered one large group of people in tubes, plus a couple of rafts.
After we loaded everything up at Fisher Woods Road, we returned via I-75, due to construction on 27, transferred boats back at Lumberjack Park, and everyone stopped for massive ice cream cones at the Whippy Dip. It was a fun memorable trip!
Lois watching John and Paul get their boats ready for the trip downstream
Wayne and Leslie start downstream as John pulls his kayak into the river.
Lois and Wayne and Irene start downstream.
Lois runs the first drop
Our lunch spot at Rondo Road
John and Paul looking at John's kayak in a downed tree.
Paul and John getting ready to throw the rescue rope to Wayne
