Matt Forster is back today with this story about a kayak trip he and his wife took near Turnip Rock in Michigan's Thumb region.
Lately I’ve been reading a record of the famous Lewis Cass expedition. In the early 1800s, as governor of the Michigan Territory, Cass set out from Detroit with a small flotilla of canoes to learn what he could of the region. The most popular account of the journey, written by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, has the delightfully descriptive title, Narrative Journal of Travels from Detroit Northwest through the Great Chain of American Lakes to the Sources of the Mississippi River in the Year 1820.
Reading about the Great Lakes as they were a short two hundred years ago has me pining to do more than just read about the places described, I want to see what they look like now. I want to prop myself up against the rocks where Schoolcraft sat, scribbling away with the wind blowing and sky threatening rain, and see if I can see what he saw. But even that’s not enough to reconstruct Schoolcraft’s perspective, so with that in mind my wife and I set out to the Tip of the Thumb to explore a short portion of the historic trip from the seat of a kayak.
Our day began at Port Austin Kayak in Port Austin. From what looks to be a one-time auto garage, the folks at Port Austin Kayak rent kayaks (single and tandem), “glass”-bottomed boats, bikes, and even quadricycles. We paid their outrageously reasonable rate for our kayaks and then toted the paddles and life jackets down to the water. It’s a laid back affair, kayaks are kept down on the beach. Having kayaked only in the Atlantic, in Massachusetts and Maine, we expected a different kind of boat. These were Old Towns. They were shorter and wider with a larger cockpit than we were used to. There were also no rudders (which is the way we like it) and no spray skirts (which was something we missed about fifteen minutes into the trip).
The plan was to kayak out to Turnip Rock. This unique geological formation (shored up some by concrete to preserve the attraction) is rather unique in the Lower Peninsula. It’s not far from Port Austin, about three miles (our guess) or an hour of paddling from the beach.
Others have made this trip, and the water seemed so placid in their pictures. This was not our experience. Port Austin Harbor is manmade, hemmed in by two breakwaters. Heading out around the westerly edge, the wind-driven waves bounced off the walls and made the water unpredictable and choppy. Once past the breakwater, the waves really picked up, and we fought to stay on course. From where I sat, I saw waves continually lift my wife’s kayak and deposit her fifteen feet closer to shore. I am sure the same was happening tome.
Fortunately, there are several islands that offer some shelter as you go. Not only shelter from the waves, they make a good place to rest. We chose the island furthest out so we could see the Port Austin Reef Light better. From our vantage point we saw a dozen kayaks go by. Most stopped for at least a few minutes on the other islands.
Once you get past the islands and then all the way to Turnip Rock, the water is relatively shallow. This pushes the waves higher, and the waves continually crested. It took some skill to keep the boats from getting swamped. This is where I would have liked a spray skirt, and a bailing sponge for that matter.
My wife, who has been out on the Atlantic more times than I have, said this was the first time she’s ever been scared in a kayak. I was fighting seasickness most of the way back. But the rock was worth the visit even for all that. The continuous waves have eaten away at the base of the cliffs here. Turnip Rock was once part of the shore, but for some reason it stood firm against the onslaught and became a towering island of sorts.
It is clear that the Cass Expedition passed by this way, but from reading the journal and other accounts, there’s no mention of this short stretch of rocky cliff along the shore. From their vantage point a mile out, it’s quite possible they didn’t see it in any detail. At times he describes fear of capsizing and rising waves, so we got that experience anyway.
Port Austin Kayak is one of only a few places that rent kayaks in this area. Another would be marina in Port Sanilac, much farther south. Kayaking has become a popular activity on Lake Huron. The Tip of The Thumb Heritage Water Trail is developing a water trail around the Thumb from just east of Bay City to Lexington. Hopefully we’ll get out again soon and do another stretch in Lake Huron, though this time I will check the watercraft report before we leave home.
Matt Forster is a freelance writer who has written travel guides for Michigan and Colorado. His most recent book was Best Tent Camping Michigan, which came out this summer. You can find out about these and other upcoming projects at www.big-words.net. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattsbigwords
Photos and text © Matt Forster 2011 All rights reserved, used with permission
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