TenaCity to WindyCity

TenaCity to WindyCity Runyak June 17, 2019 Flint to Chicago  DAY 28  CLICK ON ALL PHOTOS AND MAPS TO ENLARGE I only planned to run and portage today so figured paddler Kate would not want to go. My mistake. She said she'd like to do a "with the flow" paddle while I ran and portaged. Red Sky Skies at Morning Sailor's Warning. Why take any chances, one further excuse for Riley 'Son-of-a-Sailor' McGlinchey not to try to paddling upriver today.  We saw this sunrise on M33 near Rose City on our way north.   This video footage was at McMasters Bridge, nowhere that I'd be runyaking today, but where I dropped Kate off for the downriver paddle. I can only hope someday I will arrive here by Green Snake.    This is the landing that I could not reach last week because of fast current and where I started my portaging of the Green Snake today   A view downriver from the launch to where I had to get out and portage. Taken after my run. I...

TenaCity to WindyCity Runyak June 12, 2019 Flint to Chicago  DAY 27 CLICK ON ALL PHOTOS TO ENLARGE This would be the first day of 2019 runyaking season that I will actually try to kayak. In the two previous trip to the Mio area I drag portaged a total of over 16 miles. When loading Green Snake the night before I checked to see how the kayak had stood up to constant dragging. OH NO! Not too well. There was a hole in the stern. For a moment I considered not heading north in the morning. Hope saw the hole and suggested I take Swiftee out of retirement. First I'd try Flex, and duct taping. Having only a small piece of Flex tape I put it on the inside then added two layers of duct tape to the bottom. I then did a leak test, Green Snake vs. Swiftee. Whoever wins the contest I'd take with me to Mio. The newer Green Snake won, being water tight. Swiftee had a very slow drip-drip going on. I texted Kate my paddle partner the last two years if she was interested, and she was. S...

TenaCity to WindyCity Runyak May 16, 2019 May 29, 2019 TenaCity 2 WindyCity DAY 25, May 16 Last October Kate Ferris and I aborted the upstream paddle when current was too strong. The above map shows where we aborted. Today my plan was to portage the rest of what was to be paddled that day. Since I did complete the run part of the runyak there was no need to run today. I had planned to do the drag portage earlier on April 28th. Hope and I drove there and I was going start the portage (where we ended in Oct was 0.40 of a mile upstream from where the portage would begin, which means I will need to subtract that distance from the runyak totals) as Hope drove the van back to McKinley Landing. Two-track Armstrong Trail was so untraveled that Hope said she wouldn't dare drive it for fear of getting stuck. I was able to drive it though and scoped out the unnamed landing at the end of  Armstrong. Here are a few photos from that day: Unnamed landing at end of Armstrong Trail H...

TenaCity to WindyCity Runyak October 4, 2018 October 10, 2018 TenaCity 2 WindyCity DAY 23, Oct, 4 DAY 23 JOURNAL NO PHOTOS Day 23 was another disaster. We knew it would be difficult because of the upstream battle that had occurred on Day 23. That day we ended two mile short of our vehicle parked at Alcona Dam. Today we did not get a mile upstream when the current drove me backward and into a downed tree. I flipped. Kate had told me minutes before we should abort and go back, predicting one of us would do exactly what happened to me. I told her just one more bend, thinking it might get better. Damn, I should have heeded her advise. I managed to get to shore, drain Green Snake. We then floated back to our launch point. My phone was tethered well, and I did not lose it, but it had moisture. My Mofie was plugged into the phone when I flipped so water entered the USB port.  I portaged the 2.1 miles to Alcona Dam using the roads. I figured it was good practice for the 7 mi...