Carp River

50 miles today and some of it was down right rough. The animals were not happy. We left this morning around 8am and first headed across northern Lake Huron to Les Chêneaux a group of islands near Hessel one of which has a large nature preserve with trails (Aldo Léopold). Apparently growing up Aldo’s family had a summer cottage on the island. Moki and I hiked around 2.5 miles. Parts of the trail were really nice, some way overgrown and lots of poison ivy. Hoping we avoided it all. When we got back to the boat winds were already noticeably stronger. We did another 15 sporty miles to Carp River which has nice protection. It’s within the Hiawatha National Forest and is a National Wild and Scenic River. Moki and I did a short kayak paddle up to some rapids and then turned around. We later saw several groups of kayakers who had portaged across the rapids. May have to try that tomorrow. Winds are supposed to be NW 15-25 with gusts to 30 tomorrow and there’s a small craft advisory (there was for the second leg today too ) so we’re here till Monday. Carp River is 22 miles long and the rapids we encountered are apparently the only rapids on it. Beyond that there’s a kayak launch and a very busy fishing pier. The road in is nice for dog walking.Read more