# Which Grayling area river to canoe?



## puttputt (Aug 2, 2005)

My wife and I will be camping at Hartwick Pines in August with the intention to canoe the mainstream Ausable -- starting early on a Saturday morning for a 4 or 5 hour journey.

I've always wanted to canoe the Ausable, but am thinking maybe the Manistee or the the South Branch of the Ausable might be better choices (more peaceful?).

Help me pick one:
-Ausable River main stream
-Ausable River south branch
-Manistee River (612 to M72)

Feel free to recommend a stretch of river and a livery too.

Thanks!


----------



## Huntmich (Sep 4, 2008)

Manistee is nice, but that's a long ways from 612-72. Shell haven is a good place to go. $25 a canoe I think. If you are more of a floater then a paddler then 612 is going to be way longer then 4-5 hours. They have a put in point at goose creek horse camp and a shorter one then that. We've been going to the short one as we are more a big group of floaters and it takes 3-4 hrs


Posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


----------



## puttputt (Aug 2, 2005)

*Thanks* for the reply and information! I'm a little surprise there is only 1 reply :sad:

I'm leaning a little toward choosing the Mason Tract, but the Manistee is a close 2nd. 

I'm not too concerned about the length of the trip. If it take 5-6 hours, that is great. It will be an adventure.


----------



## eyeball (Dec 23, 2011)

Check into Hinchmans in mio. We been out of there a bunch and always have a great time

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Ohub Campfire mobile app


----------



## puttputt (Aug 2, 2005)

Trip Report!

Our main goal was to avoid people. We did that.

We ended up being able to go up early, so we were able to canoe on Friday. (My original fear was being on a super crowded river on a Saturday.)

Friday we canoed the south branch of the AuSable from Paddle Brave through the Mason Tract to Smith Bridge. We started out at around 10 a.m. for this 5 hour trip. First 50 minutes (PaddleBrave to Chase Bridge) had cottages and houses. Mason Tract, of course, was wilderness. We saw very few people. Awesome.

Saturday we decided to try the main branch. We did a shorter trip from Penrod's to Burton Landing in 2.5 hours. We hit the river at around 10 a.m., immediately passed the 2 groups that went out ahead of us and then we never saw another canoe (or fisherman) until we reached our destination. We were surprised at how "remote" this section was. Plenty of state land in this stretch. Was a little disappointed in how slow the river was in this stretch. We'll go downstream next time for faster current.

Next time we will try the Manistee River too. 

Hartwick Pines is a fantastic campground. Most sites are large and have lots of privacy. Clean, quiet, comfortable. I've been trying to get here for 20 years.


----------

