The past two weekends have seen two runs on the mighty Huron river. The following is probably only interesting to a few people who likely don’t read this, so it will serve mainly as a future reference for myself.
Last weekend the Huron was running at about 550 cfs. On Sunday I joined several from the group (Lansing Area White Water Paddlers) to do scouting run. Nothing to extraordinary as far as river surprises, which is good when you’re looking to take a class down it a week later.
Josh joined us for his first solo whitewater run. He had previously been down the Huron in a tandem kayak with the UofM group last year. That time wasn’t took exciting. This time, he found out how important edging was. Jeff also came over with Doug for his first paddle with the group. Other attendees were Todd, Linda, Dennis and Kathleen.
At 550 there is a reasonable wave under the trestle. Not sticky enough to do much on, but surfable. The Zeeb Rd. wave was a little rocky and not much for surfing. Delhi rapids was reasonable, but nothing too special. Afterwards, Doug and Jeff went to take a stab at Tubb’s rapids. Josh and I got cold enough waiting after Delhi to want to go again. The report was that it is a very nice rapid.
This week was the river class of three students. There were supposed to be some storms, but apparently they fizzled so the river was down. Saturday was however pretty nice given that the forecast a few days earlier was for thunder storms. Todd and Dennis mainly ran the class, Linda and Kathleen assisted, and Jeff and I pretty much stayed out of the way. All the students did very well. There was one swim, but it was handled well.
At yesterday’s level of 440 cfs, the wave at trestle becomes very tame. Easy to get on and surf, but not too exciting. I mainly entertained myself by practicing enders and attempting cartwheels in the eddy off to the side of the wave. Fun, with the added advantage of not having to wait for someone else to be done surfing.
At 440, the Zeeb Rd. rapid is very rocky. It’s a little better for practicing ferries etc. further back though. Likewise, Delhi is very rocky, but that just makes it more technical since there are places to be avoided. It also makes it easier to catch eddies, which I don’t usually do all that well at. I caught 7 on one run, which is good for me – some others were able to catch 10ish.
Jeff and I drove together, and he was borrowing a boat from Todd and Linda so we did not go to explore Tubb’s again at the lower water level.
Kathleen and I had cameras. Hers actually had batteries (oops) so there might be some pictures to come.
