Porcupine Mountain Wilderness
This past weekend while I should have been at home studying for my finals beginning Monday I jumped on the opportunity to split up to the the Porcupine Mountain Wilderness right here in the good ‘ol Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The Porkies, as many call it, is a beautiful dramatic landscape full of old-growth trees and a variety of rock formations. The prize jewel and my main goal driving me to this area is the Black River.
The Black River is made up of an extremely abusive conglomerate rock that is just dying to shred your gear apart if you’re not careful. But the rock is the reason why such amazing features can only be found here. The first falls you will reach after a short half-mile hike in called Conglomerate Falls. This one is a fun slide that is very straight forward and easy to run multiple laps on by hiking right back up the big rock in the middle of the river. You’ll want to feel warmed up before heading down if you plan on dropping into the Gorge.
Here is Tommy Gram on Conglomerate
Potawatomi falls should be scouted before heading up stream to Conglomerate as getting out above would be a pain. This marks the entrance to the gorge. 
Potawatomi falls is a long slide finishing off with a 15ish foot falls. Scout really well or follow a friend off. Knowing where exactly your line is once you’re down in there is tricky because the river is very wide with no major markers to set up. This drop is a case of “boats bigger than it looks” make sure you’re good and forward going off the final lip as you’re carrying tons of speed and the impact can be hard. Also worth noting you do not want to go off the right side of the lip as there is a rock ledge just under the surface.
Here is a screen shot while editing the video from the day. Me, Potawatomi.
The eddy right below Potawatomi fills with a thick foam.
Below the gorge tightens up even more with large vertical walls on both sides. “Birth Canal” awaits the eager right above the lip of Gorge Falls. Birth Canal is the site of “Boomer’s Beat Down” from Nate Hebeck’s Toxic Waters film. It serves it up pretty good. Luckily it is a very easy portage and still offers the ability to run Gorge Falls. Gorge falls is a perfect 25ish footer with a sloping lip and a small flake near the bottom that offers a last chance to get your bow up. At higher flows the boil line can be huge on this falls with a cave-like eddy on river left you wouldn’t want to go in.
Screen shot from Gorge Falls
Many people will put in below Gorge falls and run through to Lake Superior. From here the scenery is gorgeous and the whitewater less committing with the exception of Rainbow Falls. There is many smaller rapids leading down to Sandstone Falls, scout if you don’t have a guide and always be aware of wood. Sandstone Falls is a fun spout with a lateral at the top.
More boogie water follows with fun slots, boofs, and twisting rapids. Our trusty guide Steve is shown here on S-turn.
Just when you think the river has exhausted it’s power and only flat water awaits you will roll up on Rainbow Falls. Rainbow is definitely one of the nastier looking falls I’ve seen. Pictures don’t really do it justice as to how much is really going on. It starts with a big wide lip, lots of flakes, a cave that would mean absolute death, and of course the perfect line just left of center. Scout this drop on river right. It’s easy to have safety waiting below in the pool. My line went great and I was really grateful to have a fresh SnapDragon Skirt on to keep me dry upon impact at the bottom.
That night it started raining at around 9pm and kept on strong throughout the night. At some point it turned to snow and we woke up with around 3 inches at our camp site. This was my first weekend sleeping in my new rig and I was pumped with how well everything is turning out. I’ll post some more photos on how I’ve converted this thing into the ultimate kayakers rig once I have all the final touches done.
After thawing out in town at the local diner and throwing our drysuits in the dryers at the laundromat we were ready to get back after it. We headed over to the Presque Isle river. The most popular section of the Presque is the final mile. Each year it hosts the Jim Rada memorial Race, a grass roots race in memory of a great man that pioneered the whitewater on the shores of Lake Superior. Mark and Steve showed up in the morning with aspirations to hike in and run the total Presque. Usually this requires a dirt road that takes you most of the way there and then a 1-2 mile hike. On our particular day the gate was closed right from the beginning. We decided to be cool and hike the full 6 miles in to the river while pulling our kayaks thanks to the snow. Unfortunately, we failed epically and took a wrong turn somewhere. We ended up on Copper creek, with barely enough flow to get down. With the thought of hiking any farther in the rain we decided to put on and followed it until we ended up joining the Presque below all the substantial drops we had aimed for.
The lower mile has 4 main drops. The first has a long bumpy slide runnable on the far left, there was a log in the line on the falls river right. The second drop has a staircase style falls on river left or a slide and boof down the middle. The 3rd slide seems to be the main event. Manabezho Falls. This river-wide 25 footer has a spout on river left that is most commonly run. With flow on the low side, Mark and I opted for the center line which is a tricky boof as the lip gets pretty shallow for a stroke. All in all lines went great. To finish it all up there is a fun chute down the left channel leading you to the beautiful beaches of Lake Superior.
Here is Stephen Smits on the 1st slide of the lower mile.
The views on Lake Superior are some of the best you’ll ever see. A great way to finish another awesome weekend paddling in the U.P. \
SYOTR
Adrian Tregoning May 2nd, 2011
Very nice… I’ve seen pics of this before, looks great! Video up yet?