Chippewa River May 2010

The first weekend of May found my wife and I and a few friends on the Chippewa River near Mount Pleasant Michigan.  This was a new river for us all.  We packed up the canoes and gear in a light rain and headed North.   We used Chippewa Outfitters to spot our canoes and as our take out point.    http://www.chipoutfitters.com/  We put in at Winn Road.  The access here was a little more than a small pull off along the side of the road with a dirt path to a landing near the bridge.  There was just enough room to drop off our 3 canoes and gear.  We did this quickly as traffic on the road was heavy.

The river was absolutely beautiful and a little more technical in places than what we are normally used to.  We had some tight turns to make around fallen trees and some large boulders to navigate around.  The river got shallow in places where we scrapped bottom a few times.  After a few hours of paddling we arrived at Deerfield County park.   This park allowed camping at designated sites for $20 a site.  We reserved 2 since we were just over the legal limit of occupants per site.  A ranger was supposed to check on us and collect a $3 per boat fee.  We told the livery this and they thought it sounded odd.  The ranger never came.  We were the only people camping there that weekend.  After camp was set up I tried my hand at fishing.  I managed to catch about 6 rainbow trout but none were large enough to keep.  One trout swallowed the hook and I felt it a greater crime to release a mortally wounded fish to the river than eat it.  So, wrapped in tin foil the rainbow went into the fire.  A few minutes later we dined on fresh trout!!  

The next morning we woke up to a downpour.  This thoroughly soaked our entire campsite.  Our tent kept us very dry except a little puddle under my wife's thermarest.  Not bad considering how much rain fell  and we were on a packed down campsite.  The gigantic tarp I brought sheltered all 7 of us very well and we enjoyed fresh coffee, eggs, sausage and more eggs in relative dryness.



Beyond Deerfield Park the river widened in places and we also paddled through several ponds.  This was my favorite section of the trip.  It had a much different feel than our usual trips.  We had a sense of wilderness at times and at other times we did not.  We paddled through a golf course!  The massive houses along the river were impressive!  The covered bridge was a highlight of the trip.  You don't see these everyday!  We had more capsizes than all of our previous trips combined.  TIP...TIP!  All capsizes were experienced by the 3 person boat.  We discovered that a middle seat in a canoe is not the best place for someone to sit!  At least the weather was warm and the river not too cold!

 The take out point at Chippewa Outfitters was fair.  There was a 50 yard walk from the river to a small pull off along side the road.  The livery itself was another 50 yards or so beyond that.  The road was busy so we had to be careful loading the boats and gear.  This was a fun and slightly more challenging trip than previous ones.  I would definitely do this trip again!