Muskegon River Delta

We rented a cabin at Muskegon State Park for our 7th wedding anniversary. It was an unusually warm weekend for mid-November. The wind was blowing warm, moist air from the south. We arrived on Friday as the sun was setting over Lake Michigan.

In the morning, we went for a walk on the beach. We had just bought a new camera, the Olympus Stylus TG-2 iHS. I always felt that our old camera, a Canon PowerShot Digital Elph, took pretty good pictures, but the switch broke off of it some years ago so that we could not switch between picture-taking, video, and playback. The new camera has some interesting features, including a self-portrait mode (below). It seems to work pretty well.

The nice thing about paddling at Muskegon is that you can choose your level of exposure, depending on the wind conditions: big lake, small lake, or river. The forecast was for rain and wind gusts to 30 mph, so we chose the most protected route, on the river.  

The Muskegon river runs 216 miles across western Michigan, the second longest river in Michigan after the Grand. The Muskegon spreads out into a braided delta before entering Muskegon Lake. We put in at Veterans Memorial Park in Muskegon and paddled up the north branch until it connected to the south branch, then returned, finishing the loop with a downwind run on Muskegon Lake. It was a 12 mile loop.

The delta was a mixture of marsh grass, cattails, and bottom-land forest. The new camera has a wider-angle lens than the old camera, so blog readers can look forward to more scenery in the pictures of Lauren's back.

The leaves were off the trees. The grasses and willows were shades of brown, red, and tan. There was a moderate current. The river was mostly clear of obstructions; only a few tight maneuvers around logs.

The day was gray, and the wind was in the treetops, but the forecast rain did not appear. The only people on the river were a few steelhead fishermen.

I remembered that the new camera is waterproof, so the blog can now feature underwater pictures!

After a few hours, we came to the junction where the braided river combined to its full width.

Heading back downstream, the river quickly narrowed again as channels diverged off the side into the marsh.

The wind picked up as we approached Muskegon Lake. Fortunately it would be a downwind run.

The water was shallow, so we had to stay several hundred yards offshore to ovoid the breaking waves.

There were some sandbars on re-entering the North river channel. We did not succeed in finding the deep water, so we had to get out and drag the canoe for a bit.

The delta was a beautiful wild area. There are many channels to explore. We'll have to come back to see it in another season.