Day 222 and 223 (Full Post)

Day 222
Start:          7:00 AM - Woodtick Peninsula, MI (outside Toledo, OH)
Break:        10:00 AM - 3:00 PM - Sterling State Park, MI
Finish          4:00 PM - Stony Point, MI
Time:          4:00 hours
Daily dist:    17 miles
Total dist:    4200+   
Companions:    None
Weather:    Mostly Clear with highs in the upper 80s wind out of the south
                 at 5+ mph.
Notes:   A short day of paddling in order to say with Kim Harper and set up
            for a push into Detroit tomorrow.

Day 223
Start:            7:45 AM -  Stony Point, MI
Finish            5:15 PM - Belle Isle Detroit, MI
Time:            9:30 hours
Daily dist:      31 miles
Total dist:       4200+   
Companions:    None
Weather:    Mostly Clear with highs in the upper 80s wind out of the sw at
                 7+ mph.
Notes:        A long day of paddling to meet up with Ed Webber.

Yesterday was a relatively uneventful day on the water.  With not much distance to cover and a contact not available until later in the afternoon I took my time getting packed up and on the water.  From Woodtick Peninsula I paddled three easy hours to Sterling State Beach where I hung out for the rest of the day waiting for the woman I was going to be staying with to get home from work.  To make finding my way a little easier, Kim was out waving an orange paddle float from the end of her neighborhood dock.

Kim’s house is only a couple blocks from the beach so rather than fuss with unloading the kayak completely and tying it to the roof of Kim’s truck, we put it on a kayak cart and pulled it to her house.  Once I was all cleaned up it was off to dinner with Ed Webber the gentleman with whom I will be staying tomorrow night.  To lighten my load for tomorrow I brought two duffle bags full of camping gear and sent them on with Ed. 

Kim says good by from her dock

The next morning (Day 223) instead of walking the two blocks to the water I sat in the back of Kim’s truck and held on to the bow of the Ikkuma while Kim drove the five minutes to the boat ramp and dock.

After thanking Kim for her hospitality one more time, I threaded my way through the rocky shallows behind Stony Point then continued north two more hours before I claimed the end of Lake Erie.  It was eleven days and about 280 miles from when I entered lake Erie back in Buffalo.  Leaving the lake behind also meant leaving behind non flowing water for the next 50-60 miles.  Over the next six hours, I got a fair taste of what the river current can be like as I slogged my way upstream past the industrial sector south of town, on past downtown, and into Belle Isle.

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the south end of town is a bit industrial

As soon as I reached the beach Ed was there with a cooler full of ice cold beverages.  Just as I was taking a sip of Gatoraid I looked up and saw a cop writing Ed a parking ticket.  Ed hustled over to see if he could explain the situation but the cop apparently was on a mission and merely told Ed that he was lucky that he didn’t cite us for launching/landing from that beach without a permit from the Detroit parks department.

Motown

Once we were all loaded Ed took me back to his house where I got my second shower in as many days then went out for dinner with Ed in a nearby town where we had a great time chatting about everything under the sun while enjoying a fantastic meal.