November Surprise

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile journeys exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

This November has been surprising so far (on many levels). The weather has been amazingly warm this first 10 days. Yesterday, Traverse City broke a high temp record from 1896! And not just by a degree or two, but by 5 degrees!

So, of course, I went kayaking on that warmest day and hiked several other days.

I kayaked my favorite small lake nearby, Cedar Lake. I noticed there are more than one 'Cedar Lakes' around Traverse City. This one is just west of Long Lake, west of Traverse City.

Today, I headed to the big lake to walk the lakeshore. Since the temps were starting to dip and some rain fell, I had the entire beach to myself.

Lovely.

With the lake levels rising this year, the shoreline showed evidence of erosion.

The lake was turquoise and white-capped. Bands of rain clouds hovered over the lake in the distance. 

Still my favorite place.

 

Kayaking Cedar Lake

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile journeys exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

The entire state of Michigan (both upper and lower peninsulas) are in the Great Lakes Basin. This means that every bit of flowing water you see in Michigan is heading to one of four Great lakes (Michigan, Superior, Huron or Erie). 
Check out this map of the Great Lakes watershed:

This is unique. All of the other Great Lakes states and provinces bordering the lakes have only a portion of their lands draining into the lakes. 

Illinois and Indiana have very narrow bands of their state that drain into Lake Michigan, just those portions right along the western and southern edges of the lake. The majority of both of these states drain into the Mississippi watershed. 

I often kayak some of the interior waters of Michigan. One of my favorite small lakes is Cedar Lake. There are always loons there. Little creeks flow into the lake and then flow out to connected lakes. These waters eventually find their way to Lake Michigan.

Enjoy Cedar Lake (west of Traverse City) 

with me:

Remember, these waters are on a journey.

Taking to the Water

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile adventures exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

I've had time to kayak lately, so I've taken to the water.

I joined a large group of kayakers to paddle a 10.5 mile stretch of the Boardman River. If you've been in Traverse City, you've probably seen the Boardman winding lazily through town. 

This river is over 30 miles long and its headwaters are in Kalkaska. A section of the Boardman has  class 1-3 rapids as it descends into Traverse City!

The section I paddled was from the Brown Bridge Quiet area to Beitner Road. There were only class 1 rapids on this stretch, but several miles past Beitner Road are crazy with rapids.

Here are a couple of photos from that paddle:

And here are a bunch from a paddle I took on Cedar Lake west of Traverse City:

Paddling my Advanced Elements Kayak

Is that a loon?

Yep, a loon!

Spot the turtle

Underwater...