#SundayPaddle: Huron River from Proud Lake

Thanksgiving night I was reclining on the couch digesting pumpkin pie when I got a message through Facebook Messenger that made me jump for joy..

“Hey, what are you doing tomorrow afternoon around 3 or 3:30? I was thinking of kayaking the Huron River at Wixom Road, wanna come?”

Woohoooo!!!  Sign me UP!  A chance to go fall paddling along another new to me stretch!  The next day, I gathered all my warm gear, loaded up my boat and I was off. On the freeway, I saw several cars with Christmas trees on their roofs and here I am with a kayak.  🙂

We met at the Proud Lake Canoe Launch on Wixom Rd. It was super easy to find and there was lots of parking, benches and also restroom facilities.

Rather than stage a vehicle, our plan for our short time was to paddle upstream for a ways and then turn back. The water was crystal clear and the current not too strong.

Sun and clear skies would have been nice, but I’ll take any opportunity to paddle in above freezing temps I can get!

We didn’t see any other paddlers on the water but lots of hikers – apparently a trail runs along the river for much of the way. It was nice to see several stops along the way like this group site with benches and a fire pit.  Another site had a pavilion and facilities.

It was a nice opportunity to get out and walk around for a bit!

It was odd for me to see a road, which I assumed was for park vehicles only, but I could be wrong. Lots of places I’ve been like this are just foot traffic.

We walked up the hill to see about the building we were looking at the back of. It was the River Hawk Lodge! Fancy Schmancy! Available for group events. So that’s what the fire pit and benches were for. But, I suppose you could use it if it’s apparent the lodge is not occupied.

There were more people milling around so we decided to get back down the hill to our boats and continue on. We’d need to turn back soon and when we saw the bridge and dam a ways down the river, we figured that was a good turn around point.

I spotted a place to drag our boats up just to the side of this wooden dock and a guy walking by asked if we needed help. When I realized this was the canoe/kayak portage, I realized why.  LOL

Here is one side of the “wooden dock”..

And here is the other..

Haha.  This is where you portage over the dam. Most people would have went up the ramp and over, but we were not continuing on, so I imagine that was why he thought we were confused. We got out here instead to get a look at the dam and bridge.

This was pretty neat. As we stood on the bridge looking at the bubbling water, my friend Christy spotted a fish, the first one we saw today, aside from the tiny minnows at the launch.  And after a while in the quiet, we heard a sudden rumbling, similar to distant thunder, but it was coming from the dam. Every now and again, you’d hear a rumble, coming from the rushing water coursing over the small dam.

Before we made our way back, I caught a glimpse of this sign about a race that had occurred earlier in the day.  Black Toenail Friday!  I had to Google it. I left my point and shoot set to auto and without the flash, it appears this was taken during extreme blue hour!

We hopped in our boats for the return trip. It was dusk and the temps were dropping fast. I pulled mittens on over my thin gloves and it was a bit awkward, but much warmer.  If not for my muffler to cover my mouth and nose, I’d have been pretty cold. That for sure is going in the dry bag for future paddles.

We paddled back as it got darker and colder. It was delightfully spooky, paddling over the still water and catching glimpses of fallen logs, patches of sand and rocks here and patches of underwater weeds there. I’m looking forward to moonlight paddles next summer!

As we neared the launch, Christy turned on her headlamp and we saw snowflakes in the beam of light. It was chilly loading up but such a fun couple hours exploring a new section of river!