Ultimate Kruger Challenge - Report #5

Saturday night. There is no joy in Ann Arbor but they are happy in East Lansing.

The Manistee 100 miler is underway. You can follow it on Toby's Spotter. There is a link to it on my blog www.thetopoligist.blogspot.com,

Dan got sick again and is off the river. His wife has picked him up. Mark is doing the 7 mile portage solo and is going to put in the Manistee and go all night. Hopes to "reel in" Toby. Jack is going to join Dan's nephew at the M72 Campground and go down the Manistee tomorrow.

I am reminded of a trip down this same stretch of the Manistee 60 years ago. My late brother Dick and I spent two days paddling down the river, ending at the M31 Bridge. Our canoe was an 18 ft Old Town OTCA built in 1921. It was the same wood and canvas canoe my other brother John and I had used for our long wilderness trip in Western Ontario in the summer of 1948.

Two things stand out in my memory about that long ago Manistee trip. The first is that we froze our butts off trying to sleep in World War II Army surplus blanket sleeping bags.

The other is related to the fact that in those days you could drink safely from the river. I was on my hands and knees taking a drink of the cold, clear water when I heard this tinkling noise upstream. I could hardly believe it but there was my brother urinating in the Manistee with this big grin on his face. I resolved to get back at him but he never gave me the opportunity.

The Old Town still exists. Restored by Scott Barkdall of Skywoods Canoe, it resides at a fancy "old money" cottage in the Les Cheneaux Islands in the UP.

I might miss some sleep tonight with friends still on the river like like I did when Charlie was suffering solo up the Huron in the spring of 2008.

Ultimate Kruger Challenge - Report #4

The Bradfords' time from Lake Huron to Lake Michigan: 3 days 13 hours 25 minutes. Amazing and congratulations from your awestruck corespondent. Their performance has inspired me to spend time on the Internet looking into racing canoes and canoe builders, the annual AuSable Marathon etc, a phase of canoeing that I haven't paid much attention to heretofore.

The Tres Amigos have been having a tough time. Dan got sick. Mark hoofed it into Mio for medications etc. Wind and rain in their faces and cold. As I said yesterday, the AuSable is proving tougher than the Huron was last spring during the Ultimate Hugh Heward Challenge from Detroit to Chicago. Yesterday's latest report has Dan doing better. Mark's Spotter showed them maybe 10 miles east of Grayling.

The 100 miles-on-the-Manistee goes this morning, starting time about 7:30 AM. Toby Nipper has arrived from Florida to participate. The start is at the M72 campground west of Grayling, the finish at Mesick.

Ultimate Kruger Challenge - Report #3

Cell phone call from Dan Smith this morning...bad water conditions...behind schedule...frost on the tents...but still happy to be out paddling. A true acolyte of Verlen Kruger.

Late evening check of the Kruger Canoes blog shows that the Bradfords have made it all the way down the Manistee. The Tres Amigos have gotten through the Mio Pond mess. Mark P. says this is tougher than going up the Huron last spring.

Coach finished his Wisconsin River trip

I got a message from Coach yesterday (Tues Sept 29) that he was back from Branson and headed back to the Wisconsin River. His plan was to drop his canoe and gear at Muscoda, drive his car to a park about a mile down the Mississippi from it's confluence with the Wisconsin (Wyalising State Park), then hitch hike back to his canoe.

I got another message this evening (Wed Sept 30) that he had put in and had finished paddling down the Wisconsin. He arrived at the Mississippi about 2:15 PM then spent time trying to find the right channel to get to his car. Confusion at the end but success overall.

He will render a final report and send some pictures in a few days. He sends his regards to the Ultimate Kruger Challengers.

So he has done it (and by himself). All the way from headwaters at Lac Vieux Desert at the edge of Michigan's UP to the Father of Waters. As I predicted he turned left at the Mississippi but he did not head for New Orleans. A gutty performance from a man who has earned my ultimate respect. In my prime I don't think I could have kept up with him.

He and his performance reminds me of that old joke about the guy who was proud of always doing things the hard way. One time his son asked how he was conceived. The father replied proudly "Standing up in a hammock!"

Ultimate Kruger Challenge - Report #2

I'm sitting here feeling sorry for the Challengers. They have been facing more brutal canoeing conditions than anyone I know since Charlie Parmelee started upstream into a tough current on the Huron River at the end of March 2008....in the snow.....after a cold night's semi-sleep....in the snow..

I am following closely Brian's Weber's reports in Mark P's "Kruger Canoe Adventures". www.krugercanoes.blogspot.com

Team Bradford made it to Grayling last night, having passed the Tres Amigos early on. There are pictures on the blog of their new racer. It is one mean looking skinny black Crozier canoe named "Bushwhacker". They are now doing the 7 mile portage up M72.

The Tres Amigos (Mark P., Dan Smith and Jack Murgatroid) have not yet reached Mio Pond where they face a nasty walk after they portage the dam since the DNR and/or Consumers Energy decided to pull down the pond level 8 feet for dam repairs. That is apparently affecting the AuSable's current also. Yesterday's brutal headwinds and rain made for a tough day but I understand they had a good fire last night and slept good.

Be sure to look at the new Spotter displays. Mark's Seawind and the Bradford's "Bushwacker" are both sending signals which allow you to chose backgrounds of maps, satellite images or "terrain", the latter being very good for tracking waterways.

Chuck Amboy is hustling the newpaper Grayling Avalanche for coverage. He has issued a "press release". We are going big time!

Ultimate Kruger Challenge 2009

The Ultimate Kruger Challenge 2009 is underway.

The Challenge, a project of the Verlen Kruger Memorial Association, is to paddle and portage all the way across the Lower Peninsula from Lake Huron to Lake Michigan starting at the mouth of the AuSable River at Oscoda. The Challengers will go upstream on the AuSable to Grayling, then make a 7 mile portage-on-wheels via Highway M72 to the Manistee River where they will put back in and paddle the rest of the way to Lake Michigan, a total of 271 miles.

The "Tres Amigos" - Mark Przedwojewski, Dan Smith, and Jack Murgatroid - started up the AuSable yesterday afternoon about 4:30 with the intention of finding a high and dry campground before the storms hit. A message from Mark at 7:15 PM said they had pulled off and set up camp.

They are paddling Kruger Seawinds. Mark P. has a new Spotter on his. You can follow their progress on Mark's Kruger Canoe Adventures blog, of which Brian Weber of Wisconsin is the Blogmaster.

Bob Bradford and son Mike in their tandem racing canoe planned to start this morning. A message from Bob last night said they saw "three bums" heading up the river. I'm trying to find out more about the Bradfords' canoe. They also have an active Spotter.

I think there is a 100 miler in-one-day on the Manistee on October 1 involved with all this. I'll let you know when I get it straight.

No word from Coach yet after his Branson trip.

Coach is off the river

On Sunday Coach went to the Packers game then returned to his takeout place at Prairie du Sac. Stayed in a motel. He was pleased that he had no more dams to portage but was concerned about low water.

Monday he paddled to Muscoda. I don't have details. Camped out Monday night. Woke up at 4 AM. Raining outside. Also raining inside since he did a lousy job of re-water proofing his old fly. He got soaked. I'm thinking of taking up a collection to buy him a decent tent and fly and a Verlen Kruger-type comfortable mattress.

Here is how he described some more of his miserable day Tuesday: "I did not have a confirmed ride back to Prairie du Sac, so I hid all my gear in some brush and went to a local gas station to see if anyone stopping for gas would give me a lift. The first person took me about 10 miles. Then at another gas station I got a ride for about 20 miles and at a third I got a ride back to my car. I quickly hurried back to Muscoda, packed up my stuff and headed for my sister's all the time thinking how I was going to finish this trip." Then he tells a garbled tale of missed phone calls and wrong dates but he finally got home and went to Branson, Missouri, as scheduled.

On the way home from Branson he intends to put back in the river and finish the trip to the Mississippi. I'm afraid he will turn left and head for New Orleans.

Coach on the Wisconsin - Day 6

Coach reported to Karen Friday morning. He talks fast and we have trouble spelling some Wisconsin names but here goes.

He spent the night near the Petenwell Dam. On Friday morning, as planned, he biked around (rather than paddling/portaging each) three dams with one trip when he arrived at Wisconsin Rapids downstream of Stevens Point. After the third dam as he was about to put back into the river a native told him the channel he was proposing to put into led not to the river as Coach had believed, but yet another dam. With that information Coach abandoned the river route and bicycle portaged about 9 miles to Nekoosa on roads that ran along the river.

He put back in the river south of town and paddled downstream into the Petenwell Flowage - I think the second biggest reservoir on the Wisconsin. As he was standing in the water to enter his craft, a passerby advised him to "Get out!" of the water because what he was standing in was a toxic algae bloom. Once in, it was an easy paddle across the flowage.

He planned to go through the Wisconsin Dells (Portage, WI, approx. 300 mile mark) but we do not yet have a report.

A recent story on NPR about toxic algae blooms.

Coach on the Wisconsin - Day 5

When he arrived in Stevens Point last night Coach did not stay in a motel as planned. Instead he ended up camping after dark in some park. Awoke this morning to find he was laying next to a "No Camping" sign in a wet sleeping bag. Four more dams yesterday plus he wasted an hour not realizing he was circumnavigating a large island. He thought he was still going downstream until he saw the same two fishermen for a second time. I'm confused just trying to describe it. Maybe it is because he Emailed me directly instead of using the Karen connection. In a late morning call to Karen he said he was looking at maps of what he was facing downstream, the second largest flowage on the entire river plus 3 dams at Wisconsin Rapids. Thinking about wheel portaging all three in one long trip. We will have to wait for the next report to find out what he decided. There may be an interruption coming up since he says he's going to go to the Packers game Sunday.

Coach on the Wisconsin - Day 4

Noon call from Coach. He is at the Rothschild Dam on the south side of Wausau. That means he paddled late again because he is far beyond yesterday's goal of getting south of Merrill. He camped at Gilbert Park on the north side of Wausau. If you are following Coach on Google Earth or Google Maps you will see that the river and the highways are never far apart on this stretch. He had to portage five dams yesterday. He says the dams are driving him nuts since it takes so long to get around them. The portages are 1/4 to a mile long and he's glad he has his traveling junkyard folding bike portage rig. He's dreading the portage at the paper mill at Mosinee where he hears he will have to call the mill and wait for an escort to arrive and take him across their property. I sympathize. I looked at the papermill complex on Google Maps Satellite. It's a big and complicated beast. The Wisconsin is an industrial river many places. Also spectacular other places. The weather is a bit cooler and he has a tail wind. He plans to stay in a motel at Stevens point tonight (River Mile 205).

Coach on the Wisconsin - Day 3

Noon call from Coach from Tomahawk. He said it was absolutely gorgeous there. I assume he meant the river and environs not the town.

Last night he camped in the woods at Kings Dam upstream from Tomahawk. That means he got through Rhinelander yesterday afternoon and portaged the dam there. He says he has portaged "5 or 6 dams" which also means that he has lost count already. There are 26 total on the whole river.

He hoped to portage 3 or 4 more today and get south of Merrill which is River Mile 138. Then he intends to slow down a bit. He didn't say how late he paddled last night. Karen doubts that he will really slow down. We'll see.

Merrill is about as far south as Northport at the top of the Leelanau Peninsula (the "Little Finger") in the Lower Peninsula.

Coach on the Wisconsin - Day 2

Another call from Coach just before noon today. He said it was a long night. Ended up throwing his sleeping bag on somebody's dock. He has gone through the Rainbow Flowage (pictured above - they call backwaters behind dams in Wisconsin "flowages") and has made the portage. The Rainbow Dam is about 12 miles southeast of the town of Woodruff, my favorite Wisconsin town. Lovely warm day, no breeze yet, nice lazy river. Intends to make Rhinelander this afternoon.

Coach on the Wisconsin River - Day 1

Coach called Karen at noon to say he was on the river and paddling. He had first put in at the US 45 bridge because he had been advised that the first five miles was impassable but then he ran into some canoeists who said that it was fine so he pulled out and went back to the beginning at Lac Vieux Desert. He put in at the dam and is now going downstream.

I looked for the dam on Google Maps and Google Earth. I couldn't positively locate it but there is a nice photo of the beginning of the Wisconsin on Google Earth. I entered "Lac Vieux Desert Wi" to search.

Coach called again at about 8 PM. Said he was getting close to Eagle River. Beautiful day, nice winding creek, great weather, trees changing, nice current. Sounded like he was going to keep going. He doesn't pause to smell the water lillies.

Coach on the Wisconsin River - Preliminary Report

Larry "Coach" Hoff plans to launch his Kruger Seawind expedition canoe on Lac Vieux Desert (from French for Lake of the Old Clearing or Old Garden) on Sunday September 13 2009 and go all the way down the Wisconsin River to the Mississippi River by September 22. As usual, he will look like a traveling junk yard with his folding bicycle portaging rig stuffed in behind the seat.

Coach, shown here with his gear during the 2009 Hugh Heward Challenge. Nancy Anderson looks on.

Lac Vieux Desert, the head lake of the Wisconsin River, is a relatively large and shallow lake which lies astraddle the UP/Wisconsin State Line southeast of Watersmeet. It's drainage area is one of only two places in Michigan in the Mississippi watershed. (The other is in the Lower Peninsula in Berrien County at the Indiana border.) Thus if you put some used beer in the woods up there it will eventually flow into the Mississippi, down the big river past St. Louis and New Orleans and end up in the Gulf of Mexico....a long trip.

The Wisconsin is that state's longest river at 430 miles, some 160 miles longer than the Grand, Michigan's longest river. Quoting from Wikipedia: "It flows south across the glacial plain of central Wisconsin, passing Wasau and Stevens point. In southern Wisconsin it encounters the terminal moraine formed during the last ice age, where it forms the Dells of the Wisconsin River. North of Madison at Portage, the river turns to the west, flowing through Wisconsin's hilly Western Upland and joining the Mississippi approximately 3 miles south of Prairie du Chien. Although the river was originally navigable up to the city of Portage 200 miles from its mouth, it is now considered non-navigable beyond the lock and dam at Prairie du Sac."

The Wisconsin exits Lac Vieux Desert at its southwest corner the promptly turns northwest almost reaching the Michigan border before it turns south again approximately paralleling US 45.

Coach anticipates some problems with low water at the beginning. We'll see whether he does the upper river by canoe or bicycle.

Great evening on Lake Huron at the Schneider Cottage

Friday night I enjoyed the hospitality of daughter and son-in-law's friends John Schneider and Sharon Emery at their Lake Huron cottage, so often mentioned in John's column in the Lansing State Journal (I am a faithful reader). They are responsible for Ken and Karen having a cottage on Black Lake (long story). Their friend (and Sharon's former work colleague) Meegan Holland took the long way to Cheboygan but made it in time for a delicious meal featuring Lake Huron-caught (by John) Chinook salmon. An interesting bunch and a marvelous evening all around.

Further revision of LaSalle's route? Another exercise in topology*

In my June 14 2009 Email "Revise LaSalle's Route? An Exercise in Topology" I discussed the new "tools" that have become available since I did my original research including Internet access, satellite imagery and the Natural Features Inventory pre-settlement vegetation maps.

In that memorandum I described what I believe to be a more accurate designation of the LaSalle party's probable route from where they abandoned their elm-bark canoe along side the Huron River to where they built the raft to float across the Detroit River.

In this exercise I am re-looking at how they got from Ft. Miami to the Paw Paw River valley on the first day of their cross-peninsula trek on March 24, 1680.

Those of you who know the Twin Cities know that downtown St. Joe where Ft. Miami was located sits on top of a very steep bluff overlooking the St. Joseph River on the north and Lake Michigan's beach on the west. Now the river is confined by Corps of Engineers' breakwaters to a straight west course out into the lake. In LaSalle's time it was free-flowing and curved around the base of the bluff a ways before entering the lake. The actual entrance shifted north or south over time according to the whims of storms and the along-shore current.

The Paw Paw River flows into the St. Joseph River from the northeast through an extensive low-land which in LaSalle's day was a large marsh. The extent of that marsh is shown very plainly on the pre-settlement vegetation map of Berrien County. The confluence of the Paw Paw with the St. Joseph is about 3/4 mile east of and inland from the Lake Michigan shore. The marsh extended most of that distance. There were low sand dunes between the marsh and the big lake.

The high and dry ground on both sides of the St. Joseph River was covered with a beech-sugar maple forest according to the pre-settlement vegetation map as was the dry land south of the Paw Paw River marsh now occupied by the City of Benton Harbor.

When LaSalle concluded that his ship the Griffon was lost and that he would have to return to Niagara by walking cross-country his first problem was getting across the St. Joseph River. They had walked up the Lake Michigan beach from the south and climbed the bluff to get to the fort. I am surprised that the two men occupying the fort didn't have a canoe but apparently not because LaSalle's party built a raft to cross the St. Joseph. LaSalle said that took them half a day on March 24, 1680.

My first job in this exercise is to figure out where they would have been able to cobble together a raft. It makes sense that it would have been on the left bank of the St. Joseph where there was relatively level, dry ground (as opposed to where the river flowed against the steep bluff or marshland) and where the river bank was covered by trees. This assumes that LaSalle and his men would have made their raft by lashing together riverside downed trees or large branches with vines.

A close examination of the pre-settlement vegetation map and the USGS Benton Harbor Quadrangle topographic map (1:24,000 1970) shows that the closest such place to the fort would have been along the left bank of the river a little less than a half mile downstream of the Napier Avenue Bridge (Napier Avenue follows the trace of an old Indian trail that eventually led to the Kalamazoo River ford). That location would have been about 1 3/4 miles from the fort. The route from the Ft. Miami Historical Marker would be kitty-corner south to the intersection of Wayne and Broad Streets then down Broad Street (past the house where my late wife Elaine grew up) to the bottom of the hill and then following Ann Street upstream along the river bank.

The next question becomes would they have crossed the river directly or would they have floated downstream before they landed and got off the raft on the right bank? If they could have floated or poled about 3/4 mile downstream they could have landed on a prominent point just beyond a gully cut in the right bank by an intermittent stream. They would have run into some marsh before they could reach the bank at that point but in spring flood the water level would probably have been high enough. Today Parker Avenue comes down to the river at that point, about a block south of Benton Harbor High School.

That side of the St. Joseph River was also covered with beech-maple forest. About a mile to two miles to the east began more open oak-hickory forest. LaSalle was deliberately avoiding Indian trails and open woods, savannas or prairies for fear of Iroquois war parties so he would have headed northeast along the edge of the Paw Paw River marsh still in the beech-maple woods until the marsh ran out where the Paw Paw flowed out of a relatively narrow valley.

To follow that route today you would zigzag through Benton Harbor on Empire Avenue, Colfax Avenue, East Market Street, Highland Avenue, Paw Paw Avenue and Territorial Road.

The area where LaSalle and his men would have started up the Paw Paw River valley is now mostly occupied by the Southwest Michigan Regional Airport.

The pre-settlement Paw Paw River marsh was over two square miles in area. It's extent can be plainly seen on a topographic map or by observation from high ground in St. Joe or Benton Harbor.

The vegetation type of the Paw Paw River valley bottom was (and mostly still is) mixed hardwood swamp. I believe the travelers would have been following the edge of the beech maple forest above the mixed hardwood swamp. Remember they were traveling in the leafless season thus would have been able to hike along away from the river a ways just keeping the left bank of the meanders in view without having to follow closely the Paw Paw's extremely sinuous path.

The problem of trespass on private land keeps us from laying out a trail closely following LaSalle's but there are places where the 1680 experience can be sampled such as the Sarrett Nature Center between Benton Harbor and Coloma, adjacent to the Watervliet Airport runways, and the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy's Paw Paw River Preserve.

* In case you have forgotten or never knew, "topology" is defined as the topographic study of an area in relation to its history.

LaSalle Relay Inaugural - Second Leg

Son Jim took advantage of another of his unpaid State Worker furlough days to bicycle another leg of the LaSalle Relay St. Joe-to-Detroit River cross-peninsula route. You will remember that on July 24 he and fellow State Worker Dale Turton bicycled the route from St. Joe to Kalamazoo. I reported on that trip by Email of July 28.

This time on Friday August 7 he started at Springport and bicycled to the Waterloo Farm Museum. His route took him through Tomkins Center, Rives Junction, Pleasant Lake and Munith. He crossed the Grand River on the Maple Grove Road bridge. I volunteered to drive "Sag Wagon" for him and caught up with him in my Chevy Malibu Maxx at Munith and then waited for him at the Farm Museum.

Before heading back to his bicycle-carrying Pontiac Vibe parked at the Springport High School we toured the Portage Lake Swamp and Hugh Heward portage territory crossed by Charlie Parmelee and Doug McDougall in 2008; walked, waded and back-portaged by Neil Miller and Brian Prodin on April 17 of this year, and portaged with wheels by the Ultimate Hugh Heward Challenge paddlers this last spring. We were really impressed by the difficulties of terrain and distances covered by these guys in 2008 and 2009 and by Hugh and his Frenchmen in 1790.

On the return trip we took an alternate route and made the Berry Road Bridge crossing of the Grand. You may remember that I believe the LaSalle party's 1680 encounter with the Mascoutin Indians (who mistook them for an Iroquois war party) took place at the Grand River crossing between the Maple Grove Bridge and the Berry Road Bridge.

The Jackson County roads were uniformly good to excellent for bicycling in contrast to Calhoun County's poor roads that we had explored by car earlier. The scenery and terrain are very attractive.

On a trip to Ron Sell's Unadilla Boat Works earlier in the summer for Jim to try out a Bell Rob Roy solo canoe we explored the route LaSalle had walked from the site of today's Waterloo Farm Museum to the Huron River at Dexter. Island Lake Road, which follows the old Indian trail, is very rough and unsuitable for bicycles as are most of the roads leading to it. Our tentative plans for next year's LaSalle Relay call for this 6 1/2 mile stretch to be hiked. If we go for bicycling beyond the Farm Museum we will have to work out an alternative route.

Jim is hoping for opportunities to bicycle the gap between Kalamazoo and Springport before he goes on the Dalmac Lansing-to-Mackinack bike tour on Labor Day weekend. We have not yet reconnoitered the roads between Kalamazoo and Pennfirld in Calhoun County by car.

LaSalle Relay Inaugural - Details, as promised.

(posted by Karen - written by the Topologist)

The LaSalle Relay Project has been launched by two intrepid bikers doing a 62 miler from St. Joe to northwest of Kalamazoo.

On Friday July 24 at 10:30 AM son Jim of Grand Ledge and his friend and fellow State worker Dale Turton of Kalamazoo took advantage of the first of Governor Granholm's mandatory unpaid furlough days to take off on their road bicycles from the Ft. Miami Historical Marker on the bluff overlooking Lake Michigan and the mouth of the St. Joseph River on a route designed to trace the great French explorer LaSalle's Spring of 1680 hike up the Paw Paw River Valley on his way across the Peninsula to Lake Erie.

On hand to cheer them on was a group of my late wife Elaine's relatives who live in St. Joe and Sodus plus my niece Patty Geisler and husband Geoff of Watervliet who hosted the bikers and had scouted out the route by car.

The bikers mostly followed county roads and crossed the Paw Paw River several times. On their way they traveled via Riverside, Coloma, Watervliet, Hartford, Lawrence, Maple Lake north of Paw Paw (where Dale's brother joined them), Almena and Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery ending at Dale's house northwest of Kalamazoo. The trip took them 6 hours.

LaSalle and the four Frenchmen and one Indian who accompanied him took three days to cover the same distance. They left Ft. Miami on the morning of March 24, 1680, spent a half day building a raft to cross the St. Joseph River (called by them River of the Miamis) then 2 1/2 days bushwhacking up the Paw Paw River valley. In his letter describing the trip LaSalle said "... we continued our march through the woods, which was so interlaced with thorns and brambles that in two days and one half our clothes were all torn and our faces so covered with blood that we hardly knew each other." After exiting the Paw Paw valley into "..woods.more open..." they camped on the edge of a prairie where they had an encounter with Pottawatomie Indians.

When white men explored and settled that area west of Kalamazoo they named it "Grand Prairie." That name survives today as "Grand Prairie School," "Grand Prairie Avenue," and "Grand Prairie Golf Course." When the bikers were traveling on the east end of H Avenue northwest of Kalamazoo they crossed the north end of that prairie.

The exact location of LaSalle's campsite where they were surrounded by Pottawatomie's can't be known but it was probably along highway M43 about a mile east of US 31.

I look forward to Jim and/or others road biking beyond Kalamazoo at least as far the Waterloo Farm Museum in northeastern Jackson County. From there on to Dexter the roads get so bad mountain bikes may be in order. Alternatively we may have to lay out a route that sticks to paved roads but deviates from LaSalle's route. The object is to get to Dexter where LaSalle's men built an elm-bark canoe and launched it on the Huron River.

The next leg of the LaSalle Relay would be by canoe down the Huron through Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti to French Landing with a stop at Belleville's LaSalle statue.

The final leg would be by land to Pte. Moulliee and up to Gibraltar where I am now convinced LaSalle had the raft built that would take him across the Detroit River to today's Ontario.

My ultimate hope with respect to the LaSalle Relay idea is to sucker at least six walkers into hiking from St. Joe to Dexter. I wouldn't object if they did it in stages.

LaSalle Relay Inaugural Slide Show

Photos from the recent LaSalle Relay Inaugural. Details to follow.

Revise LaSalle's Route? An Exercise in Topology

Since I did my research on the route of LaSalle's 1680 walk across the Lower Peninsula in the 90's many additional tools have become available to me. Some are technical like my kids' hand-me-down computers which have given me access to the magic of Internet mapping sites.

Others are newly published like the Natural Features Inventory pre-settlement vegetation maps for all Michigan counties.

Still others existed before but I had only limited access to them. I'm thinking of Hinsdale's 1931 "Archaeological Atlas of Michigan", for example. When I was doing my research in the Library of Michigan I could access that large atlas a couple hours at a time at most, and then only on those occasions that I was able to neglect other duties to spend time in the library. Now, thanks to the generosity of Karl Williams, I have my own photographic copy of Hinsdale for the counties I am working on.

Also thanks to Karl and Geneva Wiskemann I have color copies of the pre-settlement vegetation maps of those counties. And thanks to Jean King for her penetrating questions that send me back to the drawing board to justify some of my conclusions. Karl has also pushed my button by sending photographic copies maps showing old Michigan pioneer trails for me to study. These "old timers" (I can call them that, being older than they) are keeping me on my toes.

Enough of the cliches and thanks. Now to what I have set out to do, review and if necessary revise my conclusions from the 90's as to the route of LaSalle's cross-peninsula walk.

I remain satisfied as to the route I think that LaSalle and his men took in 1680 from his fort at today's city of St. Joseph on Lake Michigan nearly to the upper end of the Portage River in the northeast corner of Jackson County.

As I said in my May 25 message "LaSalle Relay-The "Corridor", if I could redo the map with the 1999 Michigan History article and the enlargement that hangs in the Michigan Historical Museum I would move the red line showing his route to take him north of the upper end of the Portage River (see my blog www.thetopologist.blogspot.com).

I am no longer happy with the route I showed the party using when walking to the Detroit River after they gave up trying to go down the Huron and abandoned thier elm-bark canoe. Here is my new take:

I still think they left the Huron at French Landing where the river takes its big bend to the south. I think they then followed an Indian trail that Hinsdale shows and calls the "Potawatomi Trail". This trail generally follows the trend of the Huron between its left bank and a couple of tributaries named Silver Creek and Smith Creek. It does not follow all of the Huron's meanders.

Hinsdale shows another Indian trail paralleling the Lake Erie shore and the right bank of the Detroit River. That trail is now traced by a highway called River Road on some maps and West Jefferson Avenue on others. It was the main Indian trail between the mouth of the Maumee River (Toledo) and present-day Detroit.

Between that trail and Lake Erie the pre-settlement vegetation map shows nothing but marsh to the south and for a long ways to the north. Hinsdale's Potawatomi Trail dead ends at that unnamed trail. I think LaSalle and his men would have turned left and followed the shore trail to the northeast for two reasons. First it would have been obvious from that location that to the south the marsh around the mouth of the Huron was very extensive. Second, they wanted to end up at the bank of the Detroit River, not the shore of Lake Erie.

Following the shore trail in a northerly direction they would have had marsh to their right between them and the river until they arrived at the peninsula now occupied by Gibralter. The pre-settlement vegetation map shows woods right up to the river bank there. They needed live and dead elm trees and materials to make a raft. LaSalle 's plan called for leaving two men to make an elm-bark canoe and go to Michilimackinac, while the remaining four would build a raft and cross the Detroit River to present-day Ontario.

I believe the raft would have been made from riverside downed trees and large branches lashed together with vines. Starting the river crossing at the Gibralter peninsula would have them launching in the shelter of the peninsula and Celeron Island and would give them room to diagonal towards the Ontario shore and land before they could be swept into Lake Erie by the river's current.

I think you who are interested can follow all this on your maps, but we really need to make one for the blog. I'll consult with my daughter the Blogmaster on that.