Pere Marquette River in Michigan

Trip Overview

My new kayak buddy Bruce and I were dropped at the Scottville public launch and our wives ferried our truck to the south bridge at Ludington. We put in at 11:30 in my Wilderness Tsunami 140 and Bruce in my wife's Tsunami 120. We had heard that there would be 2 portages.

There had been a rain so the river was flowing nicely. There were many salmon fisherman in boats and all were friendly. The river has many downed trees and you must choose the right passway through these as there are sandbars sneaking up. I slid up on a submerged stump and was spun by the current and took a little water in, but no big deal.

We paddled a moderate pace and only took a 15 minute break. The fisherman can't get past the halfway point so you will be alone for quite a ways. The mileage was 15.5 river miles. We arrived at the truck in 3.5 hours.

This is a fun trip, one bald eagle and many huge salmon racing under our boats. We did not have any portages, but we rode over lots of barely submerged logs.

Accommodations:

concrete boat ramps at each end

Directions:

Enter at Scottville public launch