On May 8th, Christy and I ventured out to the Clinton River and paddled out to Cass Lake. It was a mild afternoon and I was excited to paddle a new waterway. The launch was easy to find on Elizabeth Lake Rd. in Waterford Twp.
We locked our boats together to the bench in the background while we dropped my car at the end point, Dodge #4 State Park. Then we were off!
The water level was low and we scraped the bottom a few times but were able to navigate to the deeper areas of the river as we went along.
We were in the woods most of the way but came upon some homes at about the halfway point. I absolutely fell in LOVE with this house on the river bend! I could imagine sitting on the porch on a clear night under the stars, listening to the spring peepers.
I loved this sign! Despite the warning, we never saw Sasquatch!
We did however, come across this interesting log hung from a rope, after paddling through an obstacle course of cut fallen trees.
On it was a photo of a tree and a rainbow. ? Would love to know the story behind this one. The bottom was torn a bit but the caption reads, “rainbow tree”. I Googled rainbow tree and was pleasantly surprised, though what I found looks nothing like this.
We found two of these small canals leading to another section of river…or something.. The water level was too low to pass though, so hopefully we’ll be able to check it out next time.
We saw so many deer today, on both sides of the river! This was my only halfway decent shot.
There were lots of sandhill cranes.
The sun was setting so I decided to put on an extra hoodie I’d brought. Off came the life vest and rain jacket and I laid my sunglasses on top of them on the bow of my boat. Once the hoodie was on, I reached for my rain jacket, forgetting about sunglasses. Into the water they went.
Would have been great to have my net! Of course I left it in my car. Thankfully we were only in a foot or so of water. Christy disassembled her paddle and fished them out (no pun intended) with the small end. I can now say they’ve been baptized in the Clinton River!
We marveled at more riverfront homes and I had to snag a pic of this concrete staircase leading down to the water. Very nice, but to me it screams busted nose and face! I can see myself doing involuntary cartwheels down something like that.
Down the river a bit, we found a parked Sundolphin paddle boat! Christy posed with her Sundolphin for a brief reunion.
It was twilight when we reached Cass Lake, and soon my truck was in view at the boat ramp, at Dodge #4 State Park. We waited for an incoming pontoon to pass, then paddled over to the boat ramp.
We exited just to the right of the cement boat ramp, and loaded up.
Afterwards, I stopped to see if I could catch a shot of the sunset, which was photobombed by this lovely couple.
We ended up paddling 4.5 miles in 2.5 hours. There is so much more of this river to explore!
What a great trip! The rivers in our area are so low that I doubt we’ll get out this weekend–we need some good rain first!
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