Housatonic River (Milford CT)

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This was my first paddle in this area, although I have been on the Housatonic much further upriver ( Falls Village CT and Pittsfield MA) on separate occasions. I put in at Caswell St  and paddled up on the rising tide. It was a grey, overcast day, but the winds were light and there was little boat traffic. There were quite a number of people fishing at Caswell Street, not to mention any number of cats hanging around. 

There was marshland on the eastern shore and mostly woods on the west with some pretty fancy houses here and there on the banks. The leaves are just beginning to turn; it should be very pretty in a week two.

The Sikorsky Helicopter Plant was noisy , much chopper traffic and what I imagine was testing going on. One helicopter was hovering over the pad for at least 30 minutes. A tad noisy for my liking, but interesting. 

Beacon Marine

I95 Bridge Milford

I turned around after about 1 hour and 45 minutes and came back in the falling tide, which was moving fairly well. - A perfectly timed paddle and only 70 minutes from home. 
I might make the Housatonic southern sections my winter paddling project. 

Manistique River Michigan Upper Peninsula

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A great 10 mile paddle through the Seney National Wildlife Refuge, a flatwater, easy paddle along a very convoluted river. 

Bank restoration technique

The only wildlife spotted

The welcome sight of Bruce waiting at the take out 

Take out at Mead Creek Campground ( Natioanl Forest Service) 

Indian River : Michigan Upper Peninsula August 2012

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We returned to the Indian again this year, having had such a great time last year. The river was running a little lower than same time last year, but I was able to do three great paddles. The first, putting in at the lovely Widewaters Campground was a pretty simple down stream paddle. Fallen logs are chainsawed by the rangers every year, to allow a boat to pass through,  but there was still quite a deal of maneuvering around the fallen logs.  It was a two hour paddle to Tommy Page Bridge. There is a well mapped trail along this river. It is available at the Munising Forest Info Center as well as several of the put in points. 

The second paddle was much more challenging. Fast running  water with a few riffles and class 1 rapids, but many, many obstacles  Again there had been some chainsawing, but there were two made portages and many times I had either muscle over logs or  get out a clamber across logs  blocking the way. It was hard work, but made for a much more physical and interesting paddle. Although it was a shorter distance, it took me 1.75 hours. 

No photos of this paddle as it was too dicey to pack the camera. 

I had one more short paddle, going upstream from the campground. There is a fairly large lake (Fish Lake) and some fun paddle beyond that.

Campground on island in Fish Lake 

Brule River Wisconsin August 2012

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By chance we decided to stop at the Brule River having had enough driving for the day. We'd seen Bob Dylan's boyhood home...

....in Hibbing MN and were heading for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We had not heard of the river before, but it turned out to be a great 3 1/2 hour paddle. Bruce dropped me off at Stone's bridge and checked out a fish ladder further downstream while I did the paddle. The weather was threatening thunderstorms all day, but I was lucky and had a dry run. 

The River near our camp at Copper Range Campground.

There are six wolf packs living in the State  Forest

 Shots from the paddle

  It was a great find and well worth another visit as there is a lot more river to explore.

Quetico Revisited

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Having spent three weeks out in the wilderness (Quetico Provincial Park)  last year, we just had to repeat the experience. This is real wilderness mind you- no roads, no motorized boats, paddle in - paddle out, not one sign or man made object (apart from rocky campfires). no cell phones- just lakes, rivers, islands, bays and peninsulas- birds, fish and animals - Our idea of heaven. 
As we did last year, we took my kayak and rented a canoe from Barry at Camp Quetico. Barry also provides transport to and from the park entry points . With three weeks of pretty basic camping we also avail ourselves of the chance  to stay in one of Barry's cabins before and after the trip. We decided to enter the park at the western end this year- Beaverhouse Lake to be exact.
We booked ahead as usual as the Park has quotas and we wanted to be sure of getting in. 

Camp Quetico
Besides cabins, canoes and kayaks, Barry has  a bunch of boats for fishing on Eva Lake (their location) . The camp is not far from the Quetico Park headquarters.

Basically we spent the three weeks paddling, fishing, swimming, reading (our solar charged Kindles - often in our hammocks) and generally having a great time. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

First camp - Beach on Beaverhouse Lake 

Quetico Lake ( North Arm)

Camp Chipmunk 

Loaded Up

Portage 

Lake Quetico South Arm Camp

Pickerel / aka Walleye

Portaging

The weather was not always perfect...

Beaverhouse Lake on a Windy Day - We paddled through 2-3 foot waves to get to this camp.

Beaverhouse cliffs 

First  feed of bass fillets 

Rapids from Beaverhouse into Quetico River  ( Portaging  required)

Lake Quetico Camp #2

Beaverhouse