The Saint Joseph River Trip - Installment Four

     Day two started out really well. Everyone is roused at 6:30 AM after sleeping on a not to comfortable hard ground. First a solid breakfast was served to give all a good sustenance for the ardous journey ahead.      
     Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon and the famous tortillas (another heritage link). Two dams will have to be portaged today.
     Camp is broken, but not until after a humerous incident, where the victim shall remain nameless. You may remember in the post about arriving at this campsite there were discussions about who would do the latrine digging. Our latrine digger went off to dig (with the short entrenching tool), but he chose a paticularly soft and muddy area, with the result that suddenly he found himself sinking into the mud, up to his knees and rear end. He had to be pulled out, good thing it was not quicksand.
     By 9:20 AM the breakfast has been cleaned up, the canoes reloaded and we are back on the river. The Dowagiac shoots us right into the Saint Joseph. There is a very strong current pushing us right along.
     Just 2 hours and 15 minutes later we have covered  6.8 miles and arrive at the Buchanan Dam portage, also portaged on river right. This portage is clearly marked and rather short. Portage out 41 deg 50' 20.75" N / 86 deg. 20' 57.43" W. The portage is a bit steep.
     We now discover that the tire on the dolly that was low yesterday is completely deflated, and we do not have a pump to inflate it. What to do? We find some people fishing just a short distance away and one of them offer to take me to the nearest store where I can purchase a can of "fix a flat". So off we go for that can as well as refilling our freshwater tank. This gentleman, it turns out, is originally from the State of Chiapas, Mexico, but has lived in Michigan most of his life.
      After returning with the required "air" for the tire, the problem is fixed in short order and we complete the portage, which is only 4/10th of a mile on good road, and all downhill. Before going back on the river we make lunch, a rather simple lunch consisting of noodle soup.
      By 1:10 PM we have the canoes reloaded and on the river at 40 deg. 50' 25.19" N / 86 deg. 21' 15.19". We have good strong current and an uneventful paddle the remainder of the afternoon, except for some fairly strong head winds on Lake Chapin. Lots of wildlife observed, but no fish caught. Which means we will have to shop for dinner in Berrien Springs while the canoes are being portaged.
     At 4:30 PM we arrive at the Berrien Springs Dam and portage out on river left at the, if memory serves my correctly, Berrien Springs Boat Club (41 deg. 56' 35.65" N / 86 deg. 19' 51.45" W). This portage is not marked. The distance covered was 9.27 miles, in 3 hours 10 minutes.
     Getting out at the boat club is easy, getting across the road on the dam is easy, getting down the rocky dirt path is more difficult. While Joseph and I went to town to shop for meatballs, eggs, sausage and a few other items the other 4 members of the crew were busy portaging. They did encounter a little help from one of the folks we met at the Buchanan Dam who was now here fishing. The portage is only about 1/10 mile long, but it does take some work. Once in the rocks the dolly was of no use.
     We launched the canoes on the downstream side of the dam about 6:15 PM at 41 deg. 56' 39.29" N / 86 deg. 19' 48.39" W. We decided to pass on the left side of Pardee Island although this upset some fishermen on the bank, a number of whom used very strong terms of endearment as we passed by, a good distance from their fishing lines.
     After a very short paddle of only 30 minutes and 8/10 mile we arrive at Shamrock Campground by 6:45 PM. We have chosen campsites right on the river (41 deg. 57' 12.37 N / 86 deg. 20' 10.00 W). The camp host was kind enough to wait for us and provide us with some firewood. Tents are pitched, after the ground is cleared of poop from geese. The good doctor and the boys build a nice campfire while dinner was cooking; spaghetti and meatballs with roasted garlic and a good homemade tomato sauce. After cleaning up the dinner stuff everone hits the showers. Then the boys spent part of the evening sitting by the campfire telling scary stories with their father listening while I, being a member of the geritol set, decided to call it the day. This ground is much softer than the hard sandbank of last night.
     Here is a link to a short video of day two http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28TO1OMqnzQ

Saint Joseph River Trip Day One Video

Thanks in all parts, not just in a large part, to a younger member of the canoe trip crew (50 years my junior) and his wizardry with all things related to electronic gadgets and video files and how to compress and how to zip and unzip but mostly on how to IMPRESS, the file(s) went from South Bend to Houston and from Houston to Youtube; here is the link for a short video clip of Day One http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8vv1s3NSMk.

The Saint Joseph River Trip - South Bend to Niles (Dowagiac River Junction) - Installment Three

     As mentioned in the last post, one item was not on the "checklist" and therefore was left behind; the still camera, but a "flip video" camera did make the trip. As also mentioned, once I figure out how to get that video off of the disc and onto either the computor hard drive or to a Utube link where it will be available, because that video details the actual trip. Please note that all distances (statute miles) and coordinates are from Google Earth.
     Since one can be as Spartan as possible or as wordy as possible in giving trip information; here then are the Spartan parts; 1) Launch from river left 41 deg 43' 42.91" N / 85 deg. 16' 06.51" W - paddled 7.60 statue to Niles Dam. 2) Portage out river right (clearly marked by DNR) at 41 deg. 48' 56.74" N / 86 deg. 15' 37.00" W. Very long portage (0.54 miles) but good surface. 3) back in water at 41 deg. 49' 17.48" N / 86 deg. 15' 22.57" W. Good current. Paddled 2.10 miles to junction with and up just a bit of the Dowagiac River. 4) Camped on sandbar on Northside of Dowagiac at 41 deg. 50' 43.41" N / 86 deg. 15' 55.06" W. because strong flow of and log jam on the Dowagiac prevents us from going further upstream to Nub Lake Campground, which is only about 1/2 mile away.
     Note all the gritty detail is there, but it doesn't tell the full story, the personal anecdotes of each person.
     Here are my notes from the journal.
The crew Dr. Jerry, Leo, Thomas, Joseph (the navigator) and Paul (the expedition chronicler), all from one clan and yours truly.
The canoes; boat 1- 16'4" Pelican Bayou, boat 2 - 14'6" Old Town Rockport
Gear in boat 1: 4 sleeping bags, 2 back packs w/ personal items, 1 tackle box, 1 small tent, 1 two burner propane camp stove, 1 propane lantern, 1 two wheeled canoe dolly, 2 collapsible containers with cooking utensils (2 pots, 2 pans, 8 cylinders propany fuel, bug spray, insect repellant, firewood starter, machete, axe, shovel (entrenching tool), 3 life jackets, 1 floatation cushion, 1 fishing rod, 2 bed roll pads, and other stuff = all of the above estimated at 150 lbs plus three people estimated and known at 190 lbs, 90 lbs and 150 lbs for a total of about 580 lbs.
Gear in boat 2: 2 sleeping bags, 1 collapsible container with 5 gals. water, first aid kit, 1 large tent, 4 back paks, 1 large plastic container vegetables (8 lbs bag of potatoes, 2 large onions, 6 heads of garlic, 1 box "boil in the bag" rice, 1 box spaghetti, cooking oil (olive oil), salt, pepper, toilet tissue, paper towels, dishwashing detergent, 2 lbs of carrots, 1 bag of apples. 1 ice chest with perishables which changed from day to day we purchased provisions along the way. 1 1/2 dozen eggs, 2 packs of bacon, 2 packs of sausage = the above estimated at 90 lbs, 3 people at respectively 160 lbs, 110 lbs and 70 lbs for about 430 lbs.
    We hit the water at 12:10 PM with yours truly in boat 1 together with Thomas and Joseph. Good strong current carrying us along really nice. Not much effort required for paddling but some for steering. The bow paddler almost gets us in trouble as we go under the second bridge, he is paddling hard to get us to the middle of bridge span, not realising that he is in fact turning us sideways to the current and we are being carried at full speed toward the right pier and knowing that the foundation would be considerably wider than the pier and not know how far underwater it was it caused a moment of tension and some words to the effect that one should pay attention to the task at hand and also understand "cause and effect". Canoe 2 experienced the same situation.
     At 1:46 PM we cross state line into Michigan. We see numerous turtles and blue herons along the way. The boys are enjoying the paddle and the sights. We stopped for lunch at St. Patricks Park and ate bratwurst w/ tortillas. (something about the Mexican heritage)
     Somewhere along the way some of the boys decided they needed to answer a call from nature, so we stopped at an island in the river which is now known by this group as "P" Island.
     It is 3:30 PM and we have reached to "portage out" point upstream of the Niles Dam. We scout portage which is very long and somewhat difficult because of going uphill a part of the way. Canoes are unloaded, brought out of the water, placed on dolly, loaded up as much as deemed safe for the dolly and three people take off with canoe 1. We do note a low tire on the dolly, and no means of pumping it up. After some huffing and puffing we get to "portage in" position and the canoe is again unloaded and removed from the dolly and the dolly is sent back for canoe 2.
     What is taking them so long to get 1/2 mile. We decide that someone should go and see if they are having trouble moving the second canoe with the gear. They were not, unless you call picking berries and eating them as trouble. A considerable delay was caused here. Eventually the second canoe arrives and part of the team is tasked with putting the canoes back in the water and reload them in the same fashion as they were while Joe and I go to our "predetermined" grocery store (see planning St. Joseph River Trip post). Here we buy some meat for dinner and some juice to have for breakfast.
     At 5:36 PM we are back in the water (folks, it took 2 hours and 6 minutes to portage - way too long). We are now headed for Nub Lake Campground.   At 6:50 PM we are at the junction of the Saint Joseph and the Dowagiac Rivers and we encounter a very strong head current trying to go up the Dowagiac, making almost no progress. This may have been a blessing in disguise because just after 7 PM we come to a solid log jam across the river and that is the end of our paddling for the day. Fortunately there is a sandbar on the north side of the river, with a large dry portion, large enough to hold two tents, so we decide to camp there for the night (probably trespassing on private property). We build fire with dried drift wood, set up tents and get dinner going. Dinner is boiled potatoes and carrots with stewed onions and meat. Everyone eats well. Since there is a good waterflow right next to us there wasn't much discussion about who would do the dishes. There was, however, a good deal of discussion as to who would be responsible for finding a suitable spot and dig the latrine since we did not make it to our planned campsite which would have had showers and flush toilets. Such is life. All turned in early being tired after the portage and the hard paddle against the current.
     Sometime much later after the trip I received an email from one of the members of the Michiana canoe guys gals group stating they had cleared the log jam but had also seen where our campfire had been.
     Observation made; the Old Town Rockport, being lighter, did a much better job of going against the current than did the Pelican. Does this mean that for fishing the pelican will remain but one will have to invest a much lighter canoe for canoeing? Perhaps a higher power will have to be consulted; I can hear it now "we do not need two canoes".
     Our speed was actually good for the first paddle segment; 2 hrs 20 min for 7.60 miles (about 3.3 miles per hour) considering that we didn't attempt to set any speed records here and we had 5 inexperienced paddlers in the group, but most of the credit will have to go the Saint Joseph River and the current.
     Day two will follow in the next post.

The Saint Joseph River Trip - Installment Two

     It is Sunday, the weather is great and the big day has finally arrived; it is time to get in the water. All the supplies have been acquired and we are ready to go. It was first decided to launch at the ramp just below the Race in South Bend, but we never received an "official" OK from the SB or Saint Joe Parks folks. Someone suggested that we launch from River Street, directly across the river from the ramp. This spot would have been good had both teams been experienced, but considering the strong current since it is only a very short distance from the SB Dam, it was deemed prudent find a more suitable spot further downstream.
     We found a good spot and just a bit out of the main current. This location I believe is called Riverside Park and the only drawback was that this site was about halfway to Niles, reducing the miles to be paddled by a considerable number, which we later discovered was a "blessing in disguise".
     As the canoes are loaded items are checked off to make sure we have everything; 2 tents, 6 sleeping bags, 2 ground covers, 1 cook stove, pots and pans, 2 ice chests (one with vegetables and the other with meats that do not need to be frozen). 1 lantern, 2 flash lights, batteries for flashlights, First Aid Kit, collapsible water tank with 5 gallons of water, 6 propane cylinders of 14 oz capacity, matches, firewood starter, ponchos, 2 bailers, sunscreen, insect repellent, personal toiletries, 6 back packs with clothes, 6 life jackets per USCG requirements, 1 floatation custion, 1 signal whistle per canoe, flip video camera, 2 fishing poles, fishing licenses for the adults metting requirements of Indiana and Michigan as well as a Michigan Sports Permit (never expires and only cost a dollar), tackle box, map (chart) book, phone numbers of campsites, 2 cell phones, dry bags for cell phones and flip video camera. Everything on the check list was there, but one thing was not on the check list, and it got left behind. The few photos taken by my wife are of the loading and launch preparation. The next set of photos, which will be in another post, are from when we got to under the rail bridge at the mouth of Saint Joseph / Benton Harbor. Everything in between is on the flip video now on a ROM disc, and I can't figure out how to upload it.

All that water and work of course calls one to take care of nature and someone snapped a shot.

Then we are off on the great adventure. More will follow from our journal at the next post.

They disappeared behind a turn in the river; were they ever seen again??????