Summer 2007 Kayaking Recap: Indian River, MI, Part I

This the next post recalling my adventures during the summer of 2007. I spent the first half of the July 4th holiday week camped out at Interlochen, MI and I spent the second half of the week staying at the house I grew up in. Fortunately the river running by our backyard still had enough depth to allow me to float the Cooper and head out toward the Indian River.

A plot of my first foray into the Indian River is shown below:

Note that the river meanders in a northeasterly direction between Burt and Mullett Lakes. For my first venture, I paddled toward Mullett Lake and back to our house on July 6th, 2007. The track shown is about 8 miles in length. The highlights of the journey were as follows:

Indian River, MI, Towards Mullet Lake, 7/6/07:
• I’m about 175 lbs., and even after adding a basic gear bag the Cooper’s draft was shallow enough to easily float in four or five inches of water!
• Paddling downstream toward Mullett Lake was no problem. Even though the channel is full of powerboats one can easily cling to the reeds at channel’s edge.
• There are also some nifty shortcuts through the reeds that powerboats simply can’t go.
• In the direction of the current, keeping up with boaters was no problem because the Indian River is a no wake zone…unless you run into one of the more impatient types out there.
• One of the best parts of kayaking is how closely you can approach waterfowl in a kayak.
• Once again an energy gel proved invaluable at the turnaround point of my paddle.
• Paddling southwest against the current was an entirely different story…stay off to the side and use the shortcuts through the reeds! Wait up for boaters if necessary.
• Overall this journey was about 8 miles in total and it took me a little more than two hours to complete…not a bad day’s work!

I probably should’ve gotten out earlier to avoid some of the boat traffic, but in the end this was a great way to spend a sunny summer afternoon on vacation!

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Kayak, Nature, Outdoors, Paddle, Travel, Water, Folbot, Michigan