Tim loves canoeing, but events in recent years cut severely into his canoeing time and opportunities, so one of our goals during our latest trip to northern Michigan was to spend a day canoeing.
Staying at Borchers Bed and Breakfast on the AuSable River in Grayling proved to be a great, and very convenient, way to spend some time on the water
It had been several years since we'd been able to go paddling, and taking our own canoes wasn't really an option for us at this point, so Tim searched online to find a quiet river with a decent canoe livery.
We wanted to spend a day or two near Grayling because it is on the AuSable River and near the Hartwick Pines, which we wanted to revisit this year as well.
We're particularly fond of staying in bed and breakfast inns, so the first option that popped up on the lodging listing at the Grayling Visitor's Bureau site, Borchers Bed & Breakfast, looked like the perfect fit for us.
The inn's resident dog, Sadie, greeted us as we arrived to check into the inn's Canoe room.
The inn has a half-dozen rooms. Two of them (the Canoe and AuSable rooms) have private bathrooms, and the other four share a bathroom. It's easy to check the inn's calendar for room availability online, and it's best to make a reservation at least a few weeks in advance if you're planning to travel during the busiest summer and days.
Each day at Borchers starts out with a full breakfast in the inn's dining room with other guests.
The inn's kitchen also has a refrigerator that guests can use (so there was somewhere to store my ice tea jug!).
We spent a lot of time on the inn's wraparound deck overlooking the river, and there are several other areas in the spacious yard to relax and spend time with friends.
Borchers is right on the river near downtown Grayling and you can book your canoe trip at the livery right on the grounds.
We booked a canoe to take a relatively easy float about 8 miles down the river to Burton's Landing, where someone from the livery would meet us to take us and the boat back to our starting point (I'll post a story and photos from that trip here next week).
Borchers celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2011, and the place has an interesting history that I read about in our room's guest guide.
Ernie and Florence Borcher established the canoe livery in Grayling at the site in 1936 where they started renting canvas canoes and Ernie shared his expertise as an expert river guide.
The Trudgeon family acquired the business in the early 1960s and added a second story to the house on the grounds to accommodate their large family. A subsequent owner opened a bed-and-breakfast inn at the home.
The current owners, Mark and Cheri Hunter, bought the business in 1991, renovating the inn and the boathouse on the river, which now houses Borchers canoe shop and livery.
Mark showed us the picture gallery of former staffers at the shop when we stopped by to buy a couple of T-shirts. Many former staffers began working at the livery and inn as a summer job while in high school or college. Mark proudly pointed to each photo and related each former staffer graduated from school and what career they pursued after their time at Borchers.
Borchers Bed and Breakfast is open year round, so it's also a place to consider if you want to go north for a couple of days to cross-country ski, go snowmobiling, try skijoring (this is a new one on me, and the Grayling Visitor's site bills it as a cross between cross-country skiing and dog sledding!) or spend time enjoying any number of other winter sports.
Read more about our adventures in this area with my stories, Revisiting Hartwick Pines near Grayling, Michigan and Viewing the Elk in Gaylord, Michigan.
© Dominique King 2013 All rights reserved
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