Today dawned clear and chilly, 48 degrees chilly. It’s hard to believe that it’s the middle of July. We layered up in jeans and sweatshirts as we were having breakfast, as it was down to 57 degrees in the RV.
The day warmed up rapidly and by the time we were ready to hit the river, we had removed all the layers except for a light long-sleeved t-shirt and swim trunks.
We spotted a bicycle at Burt Lake State Park and drove back to the campground, where we put in. This was the same spot where we took out yesterday, so today is a continuation of that trip.
The first mile or so of this section of the river is very swift with Class 1 and Class 2 rapids almost continuously. I didn’t take any pictures as I was too busy keeping myself upright, and from being driven into the trees by the strong current. I took on some water through one particularly large drop in the water. Deb stayed dry by shooting this one to the left of where I did, but she had her turn later on when a sharp turn drove her against a log and almost rolled her over. This same location did in another group just ahead of us where two of their four people ended up in the drink. Deb rescued one of their paddles that had gotten away.
I did manage to shoot a video clip through one set of rapids. This one was fairly straight and not as fast as some of the others. At the end, though, I had to paddle furiously as I was about to run into the river bank and some low hanging branches. Unfortunately, this platform will not allow me to upload a video, so you'll have to ask me personally for it.
In all, we spent 3.5 hours on the river and covered 12 miles.
The Sturgeon River has joined the list of my favorite rivers and is probably near the top. It is fast, challenging, fun, and it parallels the North Central Bike Trail which made it super convenient to get back to the RV. Definitely worth coming back to.
I took the bike trail back to the RV and drove back to pick up Deb and the kayaks. While we were in Indian River we stopped at Cross in the Woods, a Catholic shrine which boasts the world’s largest crucifix. We’ve visited some of the other World’s Largest so-and-so and I think we’ll start documenting these. Other’s we have been to are the world’s largest hand-dug well and a few others which we did not write down.
We also stopped at a place selling fish in Indian River and picked up a couple pounds of fresh whitefish. It’s been a while since we’ve done a fish boil so that is now on the docket for the very near future.
Back at the campsite at Haakwood we made dinner of Park Nark Beef, mashed potatoes, green beens and watermelon. There’s a story behind Park Nark Beef which goes all the way back to 1998 on a road trip to Canyonlands, Utah. You'll have to ask me about it.
After dinner we took a 21-mile bike ride south on the North Central State Trail, enjoying the coolness of the evening and the lengthening shadows.
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