Kayak Camping the Pine River in Michigan 2022 - The Search for Free Campsites!

Ready to roll. Should hold up for going 80. We are welcomed by somebody. Welcome to Harina. Elm Flat, river access. Guess we're here. Just parked my truck. We're at Elm's Flat. It's a two-night trip. Me and the Giggler again. Parked my truck, put the key in the gas cap, and Jim, the owner, will be spotting us down below bridge. Finally made it. I wanted to get on the Pine River all summer, so it's very cold. After we go down leaving Dobson Bridge, our goal is to find a site before we get to Peterson Bridge, and then from there we want to try to find another site on the way to Low Bridge. Looking for any kind of dispersed camping. No designated sites. If we have to, we'll stay at Peterson Bridge, but that's worst case scenario. This has to be a record amount of gear for me on one kayak. I was told not to bring a tube, so we have no cooler. Just this little tiny one there and a tiny one here. Yeah, yours looks like hardly anything compared to mine. It's like loaded up. Guess we'll see. Oh yeah, you even got your, uh, what do you call that board? Sandboard. Sandboard for some dune surfing possibly. What do we usually do? Cheers it up with, uh, there we go. All right, let's do it. Oh, bugs are starting to get me and I'm sweating. Oh shit, it's foaming. Hold on. Trying to get this recording while I should just be drinking a beer. Ready? Cheers. Let's go. Very peaceful. Nobody on the water yet, we've seen, except for the Giggler. Very sandy, very clean water. So far a couple almost wipeouts. Not many options for, uh, campsites so far. I'm gonna keep on looking, but it is beautiful. You can take a dip right here. Nice and sandy. Getting some rough waters, ups and downs. Giggler trying to get flipped over here. Coming in strong. Damn it. Honestly, I've never been on water this fast and this ain't even nothing. It's not like River Wild with your buddy Bacon. Big rock. Dang. Whoa. Damn. Take it on water. That was the biggest drop yet. Like it. I'm all soaked. Definitely hard to drink a beer on this river. Hopefully it's not too deep. Let's see. I wouldn't mind stopping for a second. Chill out. Taking a little breather. I might go for an ice cold dip. Found a good sandy spot. Actually got the sun up. Not too bad. Literally ice cold, but be well worth it. Getting close to six. Oh, still haven't found a site. Getting a little desperate here soon. Two houses, but literally this is what I'm looking at everywhere. There ain't nothing to camp on. We just got to some spot that we're considering. It's three minutes to six. Just pulled off. Got a little sand and downed tree, but coming up here at least have a place to lay the tent down. Looks like someone else ready to fire there I can see. Definitely in the darkness, but kind of getting down to the timeline here. I guess we're going to talk here in a minute. We decided on this. Pulled it up. Got all the stuff. Got to set the tent up and get it going. From back here you wouldn't be able to see us at all. I've never slept in a place this dark. So many trees. I don't see any widow makers above us. If there are, I can't see them, but this is definitely a little secluded. Got it going. Plenty of wood to keep it going. Time for a little victory cigar. Ready David? Victory cigars, Al Capone style. Oh, David's going to get in trouble by mama smoking a cigar. My real American gangsta. Let's see how it goes. Al Capone. So we didn't realize we already got the river and all that over here. Walk up this little hill 15-20 feet away and there's more river. We're like on a peninsula. Even better. Giggler's music. Perfect night though. Beautiful scenery. Day two. Rough night. It's about noon already. Making a late breakfast. Got the bacon and the egg going. It's a nice simple breakfast. Let's see how it goes. Hungry David? First time using this. It's a long time. I've done burgers before. It's just kind of hard to keep the balance on this thing. Gets top heavy. See how she turns out. God bless. Turned out decent. Give it a little whirl here. Ready? All packed up. Getting ready to hit it. Got a couple hours down to Dobson Bridge. We're gonna keep going to Peterson Bridge and go past and hopefully find another campsite past Peterson on the way down to Low Bridge. Stay tuned. Ready Giggle? And we're off. Day two. A little bit of a tough launch with that tree. Not too bad. I'll go slow. Here we go down looking for the next site past Peterson Bridge. It's about 83 the high today. This looks like a sweet site right there. Got the sun. A nice sandy spot to swim. Would have kept going. Could have had that one maybe. There's more options than I thought once you get past, but it took about two hours. Don't have to find anything. Now we're getting into some faster water. Not even paddling. Made it to the first bridge. Don't know if it's Dobson or not. I guess we'll find out. All of a sudden we're busy. Fishermen everywhere. Yep. Dobson Bridge. Whoa. Jesus. I took a spill. I missed it. There goes my paddle. Down to waist deep cold water. Almost flipped it all. One big ass log right in the middle took me down. Oh man. Can't believe I missed it. My foot really does hurt. You get it? Son of a bee. First time ever almost flipping in the kayak. Jeez. I did want to take a swim. I'm up to my waist. Damn. My foot hurts like hell. Could be worse. Back on after my little spill. Another beautiful dune. Didn't want to take a dip. I want that sun to come out though. Can't believe that. First time. Hopefully it's the last. Man my feet really do hurt. Stepping on some logs or something. It don't look too bad. Maybe a little too hilly. Not bad though. Nice little spot. It's pretty deep right here it looks like too. And another sandy bluff. They're everywhere. Coming up on some duckies. Barely see any wildlife so far on this river. What do you got about seven eight of them? Oh you scared them off. Come on ducky. Looks like another nice spot right there. Nice and flat. Sandy again. Man that's this would have been a really good one for yesterday too. Probably better for swimming at that one. Not bad. Coming up on something here. Cold water campground. Then it says no camping and no fires. Must mean walk way up there for it. Looks pretty dead. Coming in hot. We got out to take a dip because of the sun and then it went away. Should we get back in he says. I don't know. It is cold. This reminds me of Lake Superior in late July. It was like 90 and it felt this cold. There'll surely be other spots to go swimming. Just it was nice and sandy. If you ain't going, I ain't going. I want the sun to come back out. Yeah. Same time. Ready? Three, two, one, go. It fell off my head. Oh my god that was cold. Over this bump. Oh shit. We're stuck. What the hell is this? I knew it was gonna be a low one. Damn it. We're both stuck. Son of a bitch. Trying to push off the log. Come on. Can't really get out. It's too deep. I thought you were gonna help me out. All those people are coming. Shit. Of course we're stuck. Oh my god. Oh we're gonna get it. Oh my god. I'm free. I made it. You stuck? It's a little rough right there. There's a nice campsite for sure. Right before that bridge. I have no idea what bridge that is. Definitely not Peterson. Well I wouldn't think. All of a sudden more people on the river. I haven't seen anybody yesterday. Definitely getting rougher. Oh shit. Oh I'm taking on water. David tried to take a shortcut around there. We got stuck a little bit. I don't know what these are. It's like sand but hard as a rock and they like dip off. I've never seen this in my life. If you can tell in the picture. It's really, it's really interesting. It's cool. Peterson bridge. Canoe landing to the right. This would be a nice little spot. That's the site? Yeah. I wonder if other people hear all those canoes here. Oh yeah you got to pay for these ones though. I literally have no cash on me. I got a dollar. Got a couple hours. We're at Peterson bridge. Just left the campground. Trying to find that last camping spot for the night. It's about five o'clock. Oh keep on going. How's it going? Good. Yeah we did one night. Now we're finding something else I guess. Never done it before but I'm sure there's something decent. Yeah you guys catching anything? Yeah give it some time. Low bridge eight miles. I just lost my red bag. David got it for me. Thanks. That's what happens when I didn't strap it in properly. Can't believe it. I see that rock already. Oh no no damn it. Giggler's flying. He's unfazed by any rock. You want to check this out real quick? It's a little fast. This looks pretty cool. Worth checking out real quick. We haven't seen shit yet. Fast current. Get a maggot. Dang a little bike trail. Looked like someone had a fire here at one point. Or someone had a fire over here. Pretty cool. A lot of wood ready to roll. Oh this is very nice. Great view. Good sound. Sandy little beach. I think it's my favorite spots yet. Setting up. Decided to move the fire pit over here. Got a bunch of rocks out of the out of the river. Don't think you even really need it but figure why not over here. David made himself a path across. He's gonna go up that dune I guess and check her out. Some of us have stuff to do. I got to get the tank going. Really am happy with this site though. Beautiful. Trying not to smother it. Breathe baby breathe. Nice dry kindling. Those petroleum jelly balls really come in handy don't they? Nice fire starter. Get it going. Got it going real nice. Real good fire got out here. These chairs got a little wet on the river. Hopefully they're dry before dark. Loving this site. Right Giggle? Hell yeah. Time to start adding some of the big stuff. Looks like many other people have been here before too. Even somebody there, RB. It wasn't me though. Time to get supper going. Going with what kind of tilapia was this? Sweet chili tilapia. Some Uncle Ben's original butter and garlic rice as a side. Let's get her. Looking yummy for dinner. Find a good spot down there by the river to sit. It's time for the feast. Starting to rain up here. Messi National Forest. Oh man we got some tight rapids today. Ryan flipped. Somehow I did. I don't know how. Got it going good. It just started raining a minute ago. I pray to let up and it has let up. But we do have a forecast for rain tomorrow off and on. But my phone is completely dead so I can't even check to see what's going on. But I guess we'll find out. Hopefully this baby holds up. We'll be in for a nice little thunderstorm. We shall see. Well it's about time for bed. Wish I could show you the stars. They are amazing tonight. But I guess the GoPro don't show them that well. Amazing spot for them though. All right night night time. Day three. Almost close to eight o'clock. Nice view to wake up to. Got about two hours down the river to our truck. I gotta get going. David has work later and I got Lions football to watch. Well just launched the site. Back to it. It was a wonderful site. We really both enjoyed it. Now back to some rough water. Nice way to wake up. About 8 30. Creeping it's like probably 70 72 degrees. A little chilly. Beautiful out. I'm already stuck and now I'm gonna be going backwards. Shit. Not a good spot. About to hit a rock. Fuck. No. Damn it. You can tell I'm a rookie. Oh boy. Oh my gosh. Oh my god. That was rough. It was really rough back there. Really calmed down. Potential campsite right there. Not too shabby. More rapids. I feel like every uh 100 yards you got more fast water. Definitely a lot of action from Peterson Bridge on. Looks like a great campsite over there. Right before these little rapids. That'd definitely be a good one. Oh like no no no. That's a big one. Oh there's a nice little campsite right here even. Well I can already tell someone had one. There's a little fire up there. Yeah there's a big one over there too. Shit. Oh damn it. I'm drenched. I'm soaked. Finally just passed some people back there doing dispersed camping. First people I've seen camping on the river since we got here. David said he spouted in our campsite. Oh yeah. Real nice and sandy right here too. Can already tell they had a fire. You want to stay again? Call off work? Even if you took your board up there it's pretty intense. That's sick. Let's go check her out. David's trying sandboarding. See how it goes. Oh he's getting it. He's getting it. He made it. Without wiping out. How was it? Getting stuck on rocks. Over at the Warren dude it's a little smoother. Looked like a workout. Good shit. Oh he's getting it. He's getting it. He made it. Without wiping out. How was it? Getting stuck on rocks. Over at the Warren dude it's a little smoother. Looked like a workout. Low bridge river access. 100 yards on the left. Just about made it. We made it. We're here finally. That was fun. I'm gonna go get my truck.