Canoe-a-riffic (AuSaublelooza)

“Birch and I returned tonight from five days on the AuSauble River. WE met up with Tarabull and LeSubtil at a campground in Grayling, last Wens. We enjoyed a campfire and the local raccoons.
Thursday morning we arrived at Hinchman's canoe livery in Mio and loaded our canoe onto their trailer, got maps, another canoe and a destination.

We put in at Wakely Brigde Rd and paddled off. The day was beautiful and hot. We started before the tubers and day paddlers got on the river and all was pristine and quiet. We were blessed with three bald eagle sightings, muskrats and deer at water's edge, all sorts of cormorants and merganzers, kingfishers and cedar waxwings. The wildlife seen from a canoe quietly sliding through the water goes far beyond what is normally seen on the trail. We pulled off for swims, lunch and potty breaks. The first day lasted forever and it was good. We found our first campground to be a large one, with many sites and car access too. It wasn't bad but was everyone's least favorite. LeSubtil made red beans and rice and cheesecake for everyone.

The second day dawned bright and clear again. We pulled out by 9 or so (I wasn't paying that much attention to time), and moved down the river. There are several dams on the AuSauble and we paddled through the first pond and once we found the portage (after a short hike to a nearby livery for directions, lol), we made our first portage. We either need binoculars on our next trip or Consumers Energy needs to make a much larger Portage sign. After the portage we were back at the livery we used and made a short side trip to a grocery for resupply of bagels and treats (had to replace the goods stolen by raccoons). That night we stayed at a gorgeous site called cathedral pines. We camped under giant pines, swam, enjoyed a campfire and the feel of muscles used well that day. Birch made soft tacos for everyone and fruit cobbler.

Our third day was a riot. We started out on a quiet section of river, saw more eagles including a pair up in a tree who sang for us, more deer and some turkeys too. LeSubtil saw an otter. Birch and I saw a loon and watched a momma merganser try and keep her kiddies under the water and safe. It was the funniest thing seeing all these little ducks popping up all over the place only to be scolded by mom and dive under again!
Our peace was short lived and soon we came upon Laqtis sitting under a tree at a boat launch. On the launch were piled 40 or so canoes and dozens of tubes. Q decided he'd drive to our next campground, scout out a good site and dayhike until we arrived. We bade him farewell and headed down the river. We passed floatillas of 8 canoes lashed together with the occupants drunk at 11:15am. We passed a groups of people hollering and playing radios, one group had someone climb a tall pine and get stuck. One guy climbed up after the fella and gripped his ankle while the rest of the crowd shouted "come on down Steve!". It was hillarious at times and at the very least, interesting the rest of the time. We arrived at our campsite after much playing on the river, only to find Q sitting under another tree with a long face. There were no campsites to be had. Most of the sites had two or three tents on them and no one was about. There was evidence that this campground was going to be one big party at night.

...to be continued tommorow (I'm tired) someone else can pick up the thread if they want....”

“Where is this river? I must say that I'm getting spoiled up in the BWCAW and the relative lack of people. The wildlife you're seeing is pretty cool though. I hope those partiers didn't kill the fun.

What kind of canoes and gear were you using? Were you using backpacks, or Duluth Pack type packs? Tell me more about the portages - they can make or break a trip some times.

MOre more more... I love hearin' about canoe trips.

Peace and wisdom,
SP”

“Sounds fun so far..... was Cathedral Pines near Hartwick Pines? When am I gonna see you guys again?!?!?!?”

“SP -

the canoers can be a pain in the butt when trying to do something like this. to me, the charm of "hey man!! were ya going?? want a f!ck!in beer?" call of the local drunk floater at 10 am can wear off after the first few of them. it's too bad 'cause they ruin the wildlife sightings. on the other hand, sometimes they are generous enough to "share" some memorable moments.

This river is a great river to do, it's just that in some parts, this happens.

Buddha - Cathedral Pines is east of Mio. Mio is about 50 minutes east of Grayling on M-72, which Hartwick is in. By all accounts, Cathedral Pines was a great site. October seems to be the next hike, but that's a little far away. Can you get away sooner??”

“I've been kayaking up and down the tributaries of the Elizabeth River and some of the canals around Virginia Beach and I haven’t run into anyone. I guess it has to do with the fact that I usually set out at dawn and finish up at about one or so.”

“On sunday that is.”

“Anyways, after touring the campground and being offered a bit of space on someone else's site we decided to see whatother options there might be in the area. The Shore to shore trail ran right through the cg so we climbed a hill to see where the trail went and lo and behold, a great site, with fire ring, a great view of the water and far enough away from the cg it was quiet! We set up camp there and watched all day as folks either paddled quietly by, pulled into our cg or hooted and hollered as they passed. At one point LeSubtil was heard to say "I feel like the grand marshall of a parade" and we all concured. The last pick up for tubes and canoes was 6pm and everything settled down. That day's section of river was the buisiest by far but we got such an early start that we missed most of the partiers. It was a good day. Laqtis set up camp with us and we all relaxed around the campfire. We ate Sunshine's chicken -rice delight ala' Tarabull and little tiny chocolate pies. It was our latest night and we all enjoyed every minute of it. The moon had been increasing in size everynight and was large and bright.

I awoke the next morning to rain drops on my face, got out of my bag to close our trekker tarp and collect any scattered belongings. The heavens proceded to open and dump more rain on us than our state has gotten in the past two months. We had thunder and lightening and good strong winds. We later found that roads washed out and trees fell all over, thousands were w/o power. Poor Q had to get out in the rain to pack up, as he had to get on the road home by 10am. The rest of us hung out in tents. Once the worst passed us by Birch and I dropped the bug insert out of our tarp, opened up one side and made a porch and invited the neighbors over for coffee (Tbull and LeSubtil). By the time we'd drunk our brew the rain drops were small and soft. We packed up and headed back down the river. It rained on us all day but it was beautiful and peaceful. We were warm enough and content to be where we were. The canoe livery had sent someone out to find us and he seemed amazed that we wanted to go on. He let us know it was going to rain the rest of the way. A group of canoers who were waiting for their livery looked at us like we all had growths coming out of our heads or something,lol. We had another long paddle across a pond (Alcona dam pond) and a portage,not hard at all...about two hundred feet over a hill and down to the water. We saw four loons at the dam and more muskrats. WE found a nice campsite alond the river about 4 or 5 pm and the sun broke through the clouds to dry out our tents, etc. We swam and played, I made chicken alfredo over boboli bread (darn noodles got wet, lol) and we all turned in early. We were tired and a bit down because the next day we were to be picked up. The mosquitos were horendous at this site and virtually chased us into our shelters. Birch left ours unzipped while I went to the "tree" and I came back to find it full of at least 50 of the buggers. We turned on our headlamps and proceeded to wage war. The sound of the bugs covering the mesh of the tarp was incredible. We had toads or frogs hopping around our tarp eatting their fill. It was hillarious. It was hot and muggy, Tarabull announced from the other tent that her glasses where fogged up.

We slept well, awoke to find clear blue skies. We went for a swim and floated down stream a bit, looking for some ropes overhanging the river to swing on. They weren't set up for swinging and we hiked back to our camp. We all drug our feet while packing up and finally pushed off by 9:30 or so. We were to be picked up by noon.

It was a great day with an osprey sighted and terns diving for fish all around us. We saw hardly anyone on the river. We paddled through another pond and portaged down to a pick up lot just as the van from the livery pulled in. We were all kind of dissappointed our trip was finished.

The Ausauble river is approximately 126 miles long and runs from Grayling, MI to Lake Huron. We paddled about 90 miles of it and made our way through 4 out of 6 (?) ponds created by hydro-electric dams. There's a canoe race (the longest canoe race on a river in the world) every September that uses the entire river. Most of the river is very quiet and lined with forrest. Some of it is cottage and cabin lined and some is party central due to rentals of canoes and tubs. For the most part it's a gorgeous place, no more than a class 1 and rarely 2. There are some nice obsticals to manuver around here and there. It's a nice fishing river. We'd pass over huge trout and suckers every so often and were amazed by their size.

Scabby Pete, Birch and I have an old, old, fiberglass canoe...can't tell you the make or model. It's about 17 and a hlf feet long and it was inexpensive. We'd realy like to upgrade to a royalex plastic as ours is pretty brittle and alittle on the heavy side (65-70 lbs). Kevlar or anything new is pretty much out of the question unless someone gives us loads of money.

I think we'll be doing many more canoe trips in the hot summer months from now on.”

“BTW, we had three backpacks with drybags inside them and one of the drybags with pack straps. The portages went smooth and easy, except for the one that Tbull fell with the canoe on her head, lmao.=)”

“gently down the stream, merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream.

Isn't it great to paddle and float in the summer...hike shmike...float to the beat of a different drummer. I like it and thanks for the great trip report! pics...we need pics.

I will be on river with Prowler and Kym and family and Josh and his harem (I hope there is a concubine for me...make it happen Josh) this coming weekend. and I am dragging my mother on this voyage too. We will float a day and half on the Little Miami River in Ohio. I can't wait to get back onriver.”

“In my limited action, I had a great time! Hanging out on Saturday made me feel a little bad 'cause I couldn't go with you guys the rest of the way. Part of me wanted to make a phone call, take "the hit" and just dive into the boat and go! Just the looks on thier faces when they pulled into the boat launch to meet up with me spoke volumes. This IS the way to go for the hot months of summer.”

“Sounds like a great trip, guys!”

“Yeah, great trip reports! Had fun reading them, glad you guys had a great time!”

“Sounds like you had a fabulous time. Thanks a ton for the report.”

“I had a fantastic time. The most sore I got was my sides, from laughing.

I've never seen so much wildlife. That alone would have been worth it.

If any of youse or ya'll get a chance to go anywhere with this bunch, take it.”

“Sass, the best trips sometimes are the paddling trips!!! Glad you had un thow!”

“that last post was I!”

“Sass – thanks for doing a trip report! I’ve been battling my inbox all morning and have barely had time to check out TT.

I’ll add a few things…

As Sass mentioned, there are several stretches of the river lined with cottages/homes. It may seem like a nuisance to some. But, I really enjoyed looking at them.

Paddling is really an amazing way to get around. It’s work, but it’s so relaxing, you don’t even realizing you’re working at all!

We spent time in the river at least a couple times a day. Swimming was a great way to beat the heat. We used our canoe cushions as floats to ride the current. The guys would try to swim upstream. We found large rocks underwater to hang on to… while our bodies were lifted by the current. Really a fun time.

Cathedral Pines was a beautiful spot. Le Subtil was given a recommendation from the forest service people (thanks Virginia!) to stay at this sight. After staying there, I would highly recommend it to anyone else planning to paddle the Au Sable. Very pretty and very quiet.

The last morning, as Sass said, we were dreading the end. As I swam, I kept looking upstream at the four days passed. When we left, le Subtil said he tried to paddle upstream… but even he isn’t strong enough to paddle us into the past!!

I would have changed NOTHING on this trip. (not even the fall!!) I had such a wonderful time.”

“Great trip report.

God, I can’t stand living vicariously through all of you most of the time.

...Got..to...get...outside...before...I...go nuts!!!”

“I ttok an extra day off today to clean gear and unwind. I had a bad case of the post trip blues, the worst in a looooong time. I spent a few hours scrubbing down the packs and camp chairs hanging stuff to air out, basically playing camp at home. This will be trip that sets the standard for future trips without a doubt! Thanks again LeSubtil,Sass and Canoehead....I mean Tarabull LOL!”

“LMAO! I'm all about getting your trailname from incidents that occur on the trail... but does it have to be that one??? :)”

“we need the pics...get the picture...”

“Canoehead, yes it does!The name is fitting.
Stikmon, Lesubtil and canoehead were the photographers this trip. We all will patiently wait..........”

“I don't have one of those photo pages... and may never. So, don't hold your breath.”

“I missed a good one this time!”