Who came? Lois and John, Marv and Marlene, Jocelyn Trepte, Karen Mueller, Bob Fitch, Angie Willis
Where did you go? Betsie River from County Line Rd to Fred's Landing
What kind of boats were there? Lois, John, Jocelyn and Bob in solo canoes, everyone else in kayaks
Although the weather forecast called for rain and possible thunderstorms, our fearless leaders (Lois and John) determined that the rain would hold off long enough to get the trip in. While it did rain for about the first 20 minutes of our paddle and again toward the end, everyone had appropriate rain gear so it was not a problem.
The trip started out with Lois taking a wrong turn leading the cars to the take-out. We had to turn around and go back to the highway and start navigating the maze of two tracks again in order to find the correct one. Lois reported that “I've never been lost in exactly this way before”, admitting that last year she got lost on the way to this same take-out only in a different spot. In her defense, there were a lot of new logging roads since last year and it was confusing. But, we now have it all figured out!
This is a very pretty stretch of river but since it is not used by outfitters we expected to have to portage or line over logs. With the exception of one spot where John had to cut through a log blocking the river, we were pleasantly surprised at how clear the river was! Along the way there were comments from paddlers that made everyone giggle, including “I'm going to take my pants off now” and “Can't a guy get any privacy around here”.
Another fun, albeit a little wet, paddle!
Written by Karen
P.S from Lois and John…..At least it was sunny while we were unloading boats and then again at lunchtime, as well as at the take-out. It rained on the way home, but was sunny again when we arrived, so that everything dried out within an hour or two. And the proper route is this: left on Demerly, left on Fred’s Landing and then go right when you see the sign for Crum Road.