# Kayaking the entire Pere Marquette River



## chromer101 (Oct 21, 2011)

Some friends and I were trying to plan this trip for months. So many unknowns after passing indian bridge. I figure this would be good to keep on the sportsman for info on the float.

We completed this on the weekend of 05/10/2014.
Friday was about 60-65 degrees and lots of rain
Saturday was about 70 degrees and sunny
Water Level was high and about 1 foot of visibility 


We left friday morning around sunrise form forks. (Where the PM starts above 37) At the beginning it was a little tight but as soon as you pass M-37 it was much easier. Got to stop at fishermans trail because one member in our group locked the spotted car keys in a vehicle up in baldwin.(Fun run for him :lol. Easy wet float from there to just above rainbow rapids. We had two guys flip their kayaks at that point. Everything is locked up in water proof bags so everything was ok. Rainbow Rapids was a lot of fun in the kayaks. Another kayaker flipped in our group after that. We ended up calling it a day at Elk Campsite which was a great spot to end up at. Completed 30 river miles the first day.

Day 2 was beautiful out and we started at sun rise again. The float really started to slow down. We ended up paddling most of the way. At Indian bridge we had to take things off the kayak to get under. From there to PM lake it was great wildlife watching. Saw about 10 bald eagles, green heron, blue heron, deer, swallows in cliffs which were by the thousands, wood ducks, mallards, geese, porcupine, and some other wildlife. It was very slow going past custer and scottville. We had to stay to the right but as long as you kept an eye on the current you could tell which way the river was going. Ended up in PM lake by 7pm or so. Paddle out to lake michigan in which we got stopped by a sheriff so make sure you have your pdf's or floation device.(We passed) Celebrated with a good beer and cheese bread from ludington brewery!

Total amount of miles listed on ,Map my Run. 71.7 miles. I did miss about a quarter of a mile after one stop. So i would say roughly 72 miles overall. 

If any of you have any other questions feel free to shoot me a message. (I may be late responding but i will.) If I can I will post some pictures. 

Hope this helps anyone that wants to take the journey. We paddled hard so plan on three days if you really want to enjoy it. Also I bet its a different story if go with low water. We had no bug issues during this trip but I can guarentee you will have major bug issues later in the summer.


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## Pugetsound (Feb 5, 2002)

That sounds like an absolute blast.


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## aroflinger (Sep 4, 2011)

Yeah that sounds awesome. Did you try to fish at any point? See any fish or people fishing? 

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## sNeAkYpEtE11 (Feb 7, 2011)

That sounds like a great trip! Would love to do it someday 


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## multibeard (Mar 3, 2002)

Did you get tangled up in any of the dead end channels above Indian? If they are still there.

It has been since before the advent of the permit system since I have canoe floated the PM below upper branch. One time the leader got us down a dead end that we had to walk the canoes back out of. The women did not like all the blood suckers they had all over their legs when we got back to the main channel.

I could see that it still split up below Scottville when I flew over that part a few years ago.


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## chromer101 (Oct 21, 2011)

I did try a little fishing but only put in a couple cast here and there. Def would recommend planning more days if you wanted to fish. If you are like me and get very ADD while fishing, be sure to plan time limits. We really didnt see that many people.

As for the dead ends above indian. Just always stay right. One spot it looks like we made the wrong choice because the river was much smaller on the right then the left. But the current looked stronger. We had some of the guys go to the left and they ended up portaging over a couple islands downriver but didnt cost them much time. We didnt have to portage once the whole trip as long as you stayed to the right.

All of those finger-like break offs on the river were easy to identify with the amount of current going through. I think it could be much different if the river is low maybe even average so just be prepared. I kept an external battery for my phone and buddy's gps in a dry box. I would recommend having both if possible, but I have verizon and didnt have any problems with getting a signal to track where we were on google earth. 

Hope some of this helps if you are preparing a trip at some point.


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## chromer101 (Oct 21, 2011)

One other reminder when planning this trip and gauging the amount of time it takes you to do it. Our group consisted of a guys around the age of 26-30. We paddled a lot of the trip specially during the straight aways and lower stretches. If you are planning on just floating with minimal paddling I would try to do some calculations with the cfs/river speed and plan some extra days for sure.


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## muddy waters (Apr 14, 2002)

Way cool! Sounds like fun. Thanks for sharing


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