Where not to go...

[GoNorthMore]

Anybody else have places they shouldn't have gotten into? My wife and I wanted to get a little paddling time last Saturday, the Rogue is close but lots of rentals for the first few miles upstream from Rockford. We pulled out the county map and figured we could float farther upstream, started looking around in Sparta and finally launched off old Alpine ave planning to pull out 3 miles downstream at Pine Island rd. First 1/2 mile was OK, flat water slow current, unimpressive for what I thought was supposed to be a trout stream. Then the river narrowed, current picked up about the time we hit the first tree. Wasn't much work to step out onto the trunk across the stream, pull the yaks over, step back in and keep floating. Around the next bend we hit another tree, same program, still no problem. The next bend had a huge blow-down acros the water so we pulled up on shore to go around it, that's when we first encountered the stinging nettles, wishing we had long pants. 100 yard portage and back in the water for 50 yards to the next tree, scrambled over that and floated another 50 yards to the next tree.... wound up taking 5 hours to go what I believe was no more than 3 miles, spent more distance pulling the yaks over trees or across the land than actually sitting in them. At one point in a short period of actually floating I looked up to see what the humming was and realized my head was 2 feet directly beneath the biggestwasps nest I've ever seen. Nasty mud, leeches, fallen trees the whole way, it was one ugly day on the water.

[LushLife]

I'm sure the next people to float that stretch will wish you would've taken your chain saw when you went....

[malainse]

That sounds like a great trip. :tdo12: Go-North-More and not on the rogue..:lol:

[Richard Cranium]

This is just what I have been looking for....a place to VENT!!!!

Last Thursday (08/06/09) we decided to go do some canoeing on the Muskegon River. We picked the Muskegon River Canoe & Camp on River Rd in Evart.
We paid for the 4 1/2- 6 hr trip from M-115 back to the livery.
Everything started out just fine for about the first 1/2 mile until we hit a portage due to a large log jamb in the river. The portage was about 300 yards long, was poorly marked and we were walking through poison ivy. This was accomplished by my wife and I with two young daughters-1 of which is very allergic to poison ivy.
After portaging two canoes and the rest of our equipment (about a half hour "adventure") the rest of the trip was quite enjoyable and non eventful. I would recommend the Muskegon to anyone looking for a "low key" trip.
Upon returning to the campground/livery we went to the office to register our displeasure of the failure to notify us of the portage. I wasn't looking for a refund or anything, just needed a little venting. I did it in a very responsible manner due to potential ramifications with my work place (law enforcement). The owner was in the office at that time and her response to me was "We did to notify you of the portage and my son took you there and he notified you as well". Since she wasn't there in the morning, how did she know who did what? She kept protesting as I walked out. My wife left the rest room and asked me about it and I told her that the owner basically called me a liar, and that started a whole shouting match between my wife and the owner.
Being in a business that deals with the public, we felt that she handled this in a very unprofessional manner. If she had just appologized and said she was sorry, we would have been happy with her response.
BTW....we ran into some people tubing about half way through our trip and they also informed us that they too had done the same trip and they were also not notified of the portage.
I would recommend that anyone considering canoeing on the Muskegon River to avoid this place at all costs.:sad::rant::SHOCKED:

R.C.