June 7, 2020
EEER Upper Platte River Report

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Platte Paradise Partial Pick

A playful pod of perfectly palatable people partially picked the piously placatingly Platte.

The Boardman River Clean Sweep (BRCS) and its volunteers, found online and based
out of Traverse City, annually clean our northwestern rivers and land, including the
Platte River. However, due to the ongoing pandemic, its founder has made necessary
adjustments to BRCS's 2020 schedule.

In addition to his scheduled annual cleanups (posted online at http://www.brcleansweep.org/),
Norm Fred, BRCS's founder, is requesting that paddler volunteers run "mini" cleanups
of our northern waterways this year. This can be accomplished in small groups of people
(a.k.a. "pods") who collect trash as they paddle. Norm would be happy to post your efforts online.

Volunteer paddlers are always welcome, but understand that Norm is advising that
"social distancing" guidelines be followed as closely as possible on 2020 BRCS cleanups.
A mask is probably not necessary when on a waterway apart from others, but should be
worn in closer proximity.

Last Sunday, June 7, 2020, was a gorgeous, partly cloudy, late Spring day. Four members
of the Traverse Area Paddle Club (TAPC) and Boardman Clean Sweep (BRCS), Jackie A.,
Ron C., Tracie L., and me, Glenn B., met at Veterans Park, near Honor, to paddle the upper
Platte River while collecting trash and litter.

Starting at Veterans Park and ending at Platte Lake, we were anxious to get on the river due
to our obligations later that day. Pressed for time, we decided to "recon" the Platte
rather than clean it.

Yeah, right! At the launch, one of us picked up a candy bar wrapper, and our recon mission
started its rapid metamorphosis into a full-blown cleanup.

Following are a narrative and photographs describing our "mini" adventure.

The river was running at "normal" levels for the amount of rain we've had. Candy bar wrapper
safely stowed away, the orange boats led the charge onto this beautiful ribbon of rain.

Tracie and oranged-boat Ron were first on, then oranged-boat Jackie followed. After
eddying out, oranged-boat Tracie led us down through the fun upper turns.

Moving quickly on the faster upper stretch, we just missed a couple cans in a white plastic bag.
The shallow rock bottom kept us from going upstream to retrieve them, so we grimacingly
called off the recon in favor of a cleanup.

A normal amount of wood (tree branches) was in the water, but someone had cut good "lines"
(paths) though the usual tree debris. The river was quite clean after last season, and we had
to pay as much attention to avoiding sweepers (trees) as we did looking for trash in the fast water.

I got a decent photo of Ron running the drop after the tubes by sitting in the eddy just above.
The next photo is of Jackie giving me the "look."

We had the normal visitors, including kingfisher, blue heron, mergansers, mallards, and a
crashing, splashing whitetail. Our next visitor, however, was a waterbird we don't often
see on the Platte. Hiding underwater, this cormorant popped up at the last second,
giving Jackie and I a second glance.

The numerous turtles we spotted (some watching us) signaled we were nearing the end
of the top section. We passed the Deadstream (upstream) take-out on river right, then
proceeded to Platte Lake. Onto the lake, we bore hard right on a short "shore paddle"
to the much-improved lake access on Deadstream Road.

The last two photographs are of the minimal amount of trash we found on the mostly
clean upper Platte River. It appears as if the numerous cleanup groups running the river
have made a huge difference in the beauty of the Platte.

So, pick up a bottle or can, grab that nasty styrofoam; the upper Platte River is fun,
fast, and a particularly placating place. Perfect Peace.

All the photos are here:

All the photos from this trip