DAY 51 & 52 TenaCity to WindyCity Runyak September 18 & 23, 2020

                                   TenaCity to WindyCity Runyak

September 18, 2020

Flint to Chicago DAY 51

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Where am I? 

A big change in driving to continue T2W. Since DAY 3 I'd traveled north when continuing. Today's best offering by Google Maps was to  head south to Flint take I-69 to Lansing then I-69 to Muskegon. 

Upon driving 160 miles I arrived at Claybanks Twp Park in the dark at 5:30 am, using the phone flashlight to see, I climbed down 70ft of step to check out the wave action on the lake. In the pitch black it looked promising. I looked upward at the stars, it was beautiful, triple the amount of stars that could be seen anywhere back in Genesee Co. 

From Claybanks Twp Park I began a 11 mile run to Golden Twp Park where I'd meet sidekick Kate to begin paddling. She met me 6 miles into the run, picked me up and we drove the the launch site. 

I would finish the run later, for it was more important to get get into the water when the wind direction was more to our favor. When arriving at Golden we looked at the lake, the waves were to big to launch.  

Here is a video to go with above pic.

This is normally where and when I would begin portaging. But a beach portage was not possible from Golden Twp Park for property owners next to the park had nixed the idea of beach and built walls. 

It was decided to portage by road to Little Sable Lighthouse. From there, the next time if portaging was needed we could use the beach. 

Little Sable Lighthouse

We might have continued portaging from there, but the 11 mile run had worn me out enough I did not feel I could carry Swiftee on my back for several miles. I'd wait, come back the next time, paddle or portage if needed. I did do the .30 mi run back to Golden park. By doing that I can call DAY 51 a runyak of .60 mile total. The 11 miles that was run earlier would have to be accounted for on DAY 52. 

6 hours of driving for a measly .60 mile runyak was upsetting. For consolation we decided to hit a few breweries in Grand Rapids before heading home. 

Kate drove me back to Claybanks park to get my car and .... dang,

Benona Twp Park beach

the water looked just as it had when I looked it it with a flashlight at 5:30 am. Good enough to paddle. In fact we checked out several locations down shore, and all were better than at Golden Twp. 

We were confused and miffed. Had we portaged from the lighthouse a little way, we might have found the calmer water and put in. 

Claybanks Twp Park paddle-able

Meinert Park paddle-able

Even with adding 3 new breweries in Grand Rapids to my lifelist, 848,

849, & 850, DAY 51's measly .60 mi runyaking still seemed a wasted effort. 

            TenaCity to WindyCity Runyak

September 23, 2020

Flint to Chicago DAY 52

What happen 5 days earlier turned out just the opposite today. 

When checking the lake a Benona Twp Park the waves looked to difficult to launch. We drove to Little Sable Lighthouse thinking we'd be portaging. We were surprise to find water was calm enough to launch. 

We launched before 8:00 am and headed to Benona Beach. the paddle turned out to be 6.7 miles and the average pace was 18:30. I could not have asked for better.  

Photo from 8:30 launch from the lighthouse

2 photos showing the water condition for paddling

3 photos and a video taken at Benona Twp Beach

We positioned the return vehicle at Benona Beach, 6.7 instead of Claybanks, 9.3 thinking we be portaging and most likely to tired to continue. That not being the case we now positioned a vehicle at Claybanks headed back and was able to launch again at 11:30. 

After 2.5 miles paddling we landed at Claybanks after a much slower pace of 22:16. Much faster and easier than had we portaged. Easy enough I had enough energy in me to do a run that would be counted when DAY 53 happens. I don't like getting ahead of myself too much whether paddling or running, I like to keep it no more than a DAY ahead.
Next 6 photos are from Claybanks Twp Park our finishing for DAY 52

Water still nice enough for kayaking at 12:30 pm

96 steps to negotiate to get kayaks up to the vehicles.

The run was not bad, 7.7 miles after drinking 14 oz beer with lunch. It did not seem to faze me, even though my pace was 13:30 min per mile. Overall it was a great day, 17 miles of out of sync runyaking. I say out of sync because the run will be added to the next paddle. Last week's 11 mi run is will be synced to today's paddle. A little crazy but not cheating. I invented runyaking, I am the god of runyaking, I write the rules.