Whitewater parks, areas set aside on a river and set up for whitewater action with kayaks and canoes, have become popular in recent years.
In the Great Lakes area, Wausau, Wis., and South Bend, Ind., have set them up on rivers flowing through their cities, and Rockford, Ill., is looking at the feasibility of setting up one. They are quite popular out west and in particular in Colorado.
They are short stretches of river where boulders and obstacles have been strategically placed to create various levels of whitewater action for kayakers and canoeists to run through. Once through the course you haul your watercraft back to the starting point and do it all over again and again; as many times as you want. In the Midwest hey are timed to dam releases and are only available at certain times of the year, and there is a charge for using the course. It's like the courses they set up for Olympic Games.
Michigan paddlers are fortunate that in the Upper Peninsula, if you're looking for whitewater, we have some of the best rivers around. They are considered among the best whitewater in the Midwest. The Lower Peninsula is a different story. We have only one set of recognized rapids, but the good news is that they are located in our backyard.
The Beitner Rapids -- some call them Keystone Rapids -- located just below Beitner Bridge, are Class II rapids featuring standing waves, bushel-sized boulders, rock gardens and plenty of fast water. The half-mile stretch of whitewater is fairly straightforward. It's interspersed with periods of calmer water so you can line up the next set of rapids as you proceed through the stretch.
I tried the rapids for the first time last year and have had so much fun with them that I've done them four or five times so far this summer. Others like Sandy Graham and his cohorts from Backcountry Outfitters take their rodeo-style kayaks and just do the rapids over and over; often until 10 p.m. at night.
"It's a blast in these small kayaks specifically made for running whitewater," he said. "We'll go through the rapids, hop out and head back up stream along the footpath to the landing by the bridge and do it all over again. The kayaks are small, light and easy to carry. We get several runs in an hour or so."
With my 12-foot Pungo, which is a bit heavier, you won't catch me carrying it back up the trail to make the run again and again. But once through is a wet blast of fun that I enjoy doing as often as possible all summer long.
Because of the proximity of the put-ins and take-outs it's a relatively easy trip to make, and, with a bike, you can do your own shuttle. That way you don't have to depend on finding someone to paddle with or do the shuttle with.
There are a couple of choices to put-in and take out. Shumsky Landing, off River Road, and the Beitner Landing by the bridge, both make excellent points of departure depending on the length of trip you want to make or the time you have. You can take out at either Lone Eagle or at the end of Boardman Pond. Both involve a bit of work hauling your boat up the river's steep banks.
It's about two miles from the take out at the end of the pond off Cass Road back to Beitner Bridge and another four miles on up River Road to Shumsky. From Lone Pine it's less than a mile back to the bridge. If you are doing your own portage, you'll need a set of wheels to attach to your watercraft to bring it back up at either take out unless it is light and small. There's a little bit of a walk, not long, at either take out, and you won't want to drag it along the ground. That will damage the hull.
I enjoy the ride down from Shumsky. The river gets faster as it approaches Beitner, and the riffles increase. It just whets your appetite for what's coming. It's an adrenaline rush as you ride through the rapids, and you will get wet. Standing waves in some of the chutes are large enough to break over the bough of your kayak. You barely notice, because your concentration is totally on the rapids and plotting your course through them. I always feel great exhilaration upon successfully completing a run through the rapids. It feels good to be alive.
The river remains fast once through the rapids until you get down to the pond. There are some more minor rapids that you go through on the way down, but nothing like the Beitner Rapids.
These are good rapids for someone wanting to take the next step in paddling and test their skills on some whitewater. In fact, you can scout them from the shore along the foot path mentioned earlier. It even has a viewing platform hanging out over a section of the rapids, which will provide you with a good idea of what you will be negotiating.
Paddlers living in the Grand Traverse region are lucky that we don't have to wait for a dam discharge to create some rapids in a park that you would have to pay to make a run through. Our Beitner Rapids are available any time that you want to make the run, and they are free.
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