Au Sable Main Branch cleanup Sep 7th 2024
Jacqui Morgenstein | Published on 9/7/2024
The day before we had 8 people registered on the cleanup, I was worried about the shuttle since the bed of Marv's truck is really not a good place to be on the M72. But the forecast was for cold and windy and somehow we got down to just four of us - Marlene, Irene, Susan and me. We could have done with a canoe to act as our trash barge because we found so much in the first mile through Grayling. It took us an hour and 40mins to do that first mile to the I-75 bridge. We were afraid that we'd be on the river until midnight at that rate!
Susan found a large fleece blanket almost at the start, wet and muddy so that it weighed her kayak down for the rest of the day.
She finally got to offload it - with her bag of trash and an ancient jacket with a bunch of rusty keys in the pocket at the Au Sable Canoe Camp Ground. We stopped there for a snack although it was only 3/4 of a mile from the takeout.
Fortunately the sun came out and though the wind was still biting, we really enjoyed the peace of the river for most of the rest of the trip. There was very little trash after the I-75 bridge until that camp ground when we began finding stuff again. Our pace picked up a lot therefore and we got to the takeout just after 3pm. Which was too late to join the Anglers for their picnic.
So we went to the Gray Rock in Grayling for lunch. It was Marv's 88th birthday and the lovely server went next door and came back with a tray of 6 cupcakes each with a candle for Marv to blow out!
The flower and butterfly sculpture has acquired some friends: