The Route

First and foremost, can I give a shout out to the folks at the Huron River Watershed Council for their work on the Huron River Water Trail?  From a planning standpoint, they have done such a good job building resources to support a trip like this.  Not only have I purchased copies of their waterproof river map, but their online, interactive map is fantastic and embeddable, as you will see below:

So, with all of these planning resources, what is our plan?

We are going to use the recommended 5-day trip plan, which seems very reasonable given my experiences on some stretches of the river.  It is well thought out and paced, and should be totally doable for our crew.  Here is the current plan:

Day	Starting Point	Ending Point	Float Distance	Float Time (approximate)	Portages	Camping
1	Proud Lake State Recreation Area	Island Lake State Recreation Area	14.63 mi	4.5 hrs	2	Canoe campground at Island Lake State Recreation Area
2	Island Lake State Recreation Area	Hudson Mills Metropark	22.7 mi	6.5 hrs	1	Canoe Campground at Hudson Mills Metropark
3	Hudson Mills Metropark	Dixboro Dam	20 mi	6 hrs	4	Spend the night at home - no campgrounds in the Ann Arbor area!
4	Dixboro Dam	Lower Huron Metropark	17.42 mi	5 hrs	3	Walnut Grove Campground at Lower Huron Metropark
5	Lower Huron Metropark	Pointe Mouilée, Lake Erie	27 mi	6.5 hrs	1

Some of this trip will prove to be quite familiar to me, while other sections will be entirely new!  I plan to write about my experience with familiar sections in later posts, and have plans to scout out some of the new portages and campgrounds before making the trip in August.  Stay tuned for more!