Indian River Canoe Trail - Hiawatha National Forest - Michigan

[Srobocop]

A buddy and I decided to try to take on most (47 miles) of the Indian River Canoe Trail here in the U.P. of Michigan over 4th of July weekend. We made the mistake of underestimating the 2nd half of the River and ended up having to pull out early and hitch hike back to the take out Car due to time restraints. Lesson Learned, but we will be going back to finish it.

I made a youtube series about it.
Part 1 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAx74s_CJbE
Part 2 : (This part could be skipped if you're tight on time, it's just a fireside chat about the river up to that point)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxHVL1-vGU4
Part 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMyNc7c3RG4

If I had to watch any of them to get an idea for the trip it'd be the 3rd part. It's more of an overview.

Any questions feel free to ask. As I said, we will be going back to finish, just ran out of time.

 

[derkosjo]

Thanks for this post guys, and for the videos. I’m from Escanaba, and my folks camp at Widewaters frequently. Was talking to them about Fish Lake this past weekend, and conversation led me to Google maps, and an inevitable trace of the Indian River down to Indian Lake. Wondered if it could be a fun paddle ... searched further and came across your post. Some questions I’m hoping you’ll be willing to entertain:

Did you ever go back and complete the mission? Do you think the obstacles that slowed you down would have been more easy to navigate in a kayak? (Perhaps a kayak would float higher and be a little easier to squeeze around & under log jams?) I’ll probably get killed for this one, but did you have any hope at a cell signal way out there in Hiawatha?

Hope you guys see this and are interested in responding! Many thanks in advance! If I do this float (and I hope to next summer), I hereby commit to video blogging it and posting here.

Thanks!