180 Mile Solo Float Trip- 6 Days Camping, Canoeing & Fishing in Michigan

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode. And do we have an adventure in store for you this week. I am currently just outside of the town of Grayling, Michigan and I'm gonna be canoeing nearly 180 miles on the Big Manistee River from the town of Grayling here all the way to the town of Manistee. And the goal of this adventure is to explore new water, do some camping, do some fishing, and of course, do some cooking as well. Thanks so much for watching everyone. We're gonna get this canoe loaded up and start heading down river. But I'm excited and so is Oliver. He's already been in the water. Well, this is gonna be just an amazing journey. The Manistee River is one of the most beautiful rivers in all of Michigan, if not all of North America. And the fishing can be excellent at times. Now we have a long ways to go. We're gonna cover almost 180 miles. So I'm not gonna fish for the first section here. We're gonna go through a section, then we're gonna go through a flies-only section of river. But once we get down below that, we'll be able to use any kind of bait or gear that we would like. And as you can see, right where we're at right now, the river is very narrow, and the water is ice-cold spring water, which is pristine trout waters. Oh, I couldn't get it on the camera, but I just passed a mink that had about a 15-inch brown trout in his mouth. And the brown trout was still alive as he was running up the bank with it. We've met our first tributary that is flowing into the upper Manistee here. And the river's gonna start gradually becoming bigger. We're starting to go over some very deep, fishy-looking holes. This water looks beautiful, but we still have a ways to go until we get through the flies-only stretch of river. That's when we'll start fishing. Okay, here we go. This is the jerkbait I'm starting with. They call this guy Tennessee Shad. As I flow downriver here, I'm just gonna pitch this jerkbait up into the log jams and twitch it just below the surface. And I'm probably gonna be able to see most of these fish follow this bait and hit it. It's gonna be thrilling. Let's see if we can find some nice trout coming into some beautiful log jams here. Kind of getting a little squirrely. It's pretty difficult to keep this boat moving. This current's ripping, but I'm gonna do the best I can. Oh, I just had a trout chase it. Oh, they are fired up, man. I'm telling you what, I'm having little trout chase the heck out of this thing. Oh, no, no, no, no, I'm snagged up. Oh, we gotta try to get this snagged up. Oh no, oh no. Tragedy. Oh, I got it back. I got it back. Woo-hoo-hoo. So as I go down here, I'm just back oaring, and I'm gonna slow the boat down. That way, and I'm gonna line it up so I get a good drift. And then like right now, I'll be able to take a couple casts. Guys, I just slammed a nice brown. I just slammed a nice brownie. Oh my gosh, he's all twisted in my line. I'm floatin' downriver. Rawr, I got a nice brown on, baby. I gotta back oar a little bit. Oh my gosh, Ollie, stay in the boat. Ollie, stay in the boat. Watch out, buddy. Coming underneath of the tree. I'm just gonna have to tow him, guys. He just slammed this jerk bait. There we go, baby. Nice brown in the net. We gotta, can't tip, man. We can't tip, okay. I'm gonna have to pull over really quick. I got him in the net, guys. The hook's already out of the fish. I'm gonna release this fish more than likely. But what a start, what a start. Look at that guy. Beautiful Michigan brown trout. Look at the bright spots on him. We're gonna get him right back in the water, guys. But what a great start. And there he goes. Ho, ho, ho, ho. Ollie's like, where'd he go? We got one, buddy. First fish of the trip. Okay, the skunk is out of the boat, baby. Let's catch his daddy now. Man, we're comin' in some good lookin' water here. Holy smokes. Man, so fishy, so fishy. It's like a massive adrenaline rush every time you cast this jerk bait because you're just waiting for a trout to come blow up on it. I've been warned from a few locals on the river that there's a good storm coming in at 8 p.m. and it's gonna rain steady on from then. Well, at the end of day one, I would say I probably did around 40 or 50 miles. It was a productive day. I caught a nice brown. Now it's time to get some food on and try to get everything set up before the storms come in. Well, I just got changed into some dry clothes. And man, does that feel good. Well, look at this here, guys. I snuck in some bacon grease and we're gonna cook these taters in some bacon grease. Well, no sooner did I finish dinner and the rain has began. And I'm just very thankful that I got camp set up and dinner cooked before the rain began. But we have camp potatoes, a couple juicy dogs. I'm gonna smash all this food and hibernate in the tent for the night. Well, good morning and welcome to day two. As you can see, it's just a beautiful morning. The birds are chirping and there is nothing like waking up to the sound of the birds in the forest. First step, egg. Next step, bacon and lots of bacon. Then a final egg on top. And oh yeah, baby, look at that. Now that is a monster camp breakfast sandwich. A little breakfast, buddy. Come on, good boy. Day two is underway. I'm gonna try to push through another 40 miles of river today, see how far I make it. But one of the hardest things is, is fighting my temptation to fish. All this water just looks incredibly fishy and I just wanna cast in every piece of it. But we gotta cover some serious miles today. Well, wouldn't you know it, as soon as we pushed off, the rain has drastically increased. But we have a warm cup of coffee, a long float ahead of us and it's gonna be a great day. One thing that was pretty cool that I wasn't able to capture last night is the deer. I kept getting woke up throughout the night from deer. There must be a trail that they travel here and they'd be traveling right next to my tent and start wheezing and take off through the woods. I must've got woke up at least six times from deer doing that. Now when you're fishing river trout like this, you're coming into their home. It's not like a steelhead or a salmon where they're migrating through a system. These fish live here, so they're very aware, they're very smart, and you really have to be in the right place at the right time. And during a rainstorm like this, it's a great time to catch a nice river trout. That's a good cup of joe, baby. Oh, I just got slammed. Ah. Oh, ho, ho, ho, I just had a tank, bro. He followed this jerkbait all the way to the boat and then cracked it. As soon as I saw him come up from the depths, he cracked it and I missed him. I don't know how I missed him, man. Nice, guys. Check this guy out, look at that guy. Another nice football brownie. Even these small little guys put up a good fight. We'll send him right back home. Fish on, fish on, baby. Fish on, guys. Got one on, baby. Ollie, sit in the boat. Ollie, sit, sit, sit. Oh, oh my gosh, look at that thing. He's just thrashing, man. Oh my gosh, it's a football. It's a football. I can't do anything with him. I gotta just back oar for a minute here. I gotta back oar out of this log jam here. Golly. Ollie's getting crazy, I'm getting crazy. This fish is taking my rod out of the boat, man. Look at that beautiful brownie. Oh my gosh, how exciting is that? Come on, baby. There we go, baby, nice. Nice, guys. Okay, we got him. Another football, man. Not a monster, but that fish is so healthy and thick. Look at that guy, another football brown, man. Beautiful, beautiful fish. I'm gonna send him right back home, and there he goes. Since I got into canoe fishing, it is one of my favorite ways to fish. It is just so thrilling and so exciting. A challenge, no doubt, but man, it is just so much fun. Wow, does this stuff slap? It's like a little stake. Listen to the sound of this stick hitting the currents making. Guys, I got a big brown on. I got a big brown on, baby. Big brown just cracked this thing. It's a nice one. Oh! I gotta get the net. Ollie, stay in the boat, buddy, stay in the boat. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I'm nervous right now. It's a nice brown that's in wood. Oh, it just came out of a log. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. I'm floating down around this corner here. Oh, this thing is fighting, man. Oh! Come on, baby, stay on there. I'm getting pushed up into a corner here, and this fish is not giving up, man. I don't know what to do. I'm just gonna kinda, I'm just gonna kinda bump up into this corner here. It's not a fast corner. Oh, oh, we're gonna bump this log right here. Ollie, stay in the boat. Oh! Oh, I got him, baby, I got him. The boat's turning right now, guys. I'm gonna keep him in the net, and I'm gonna get turned around here. Woo-hoo-hoo! Nice brownie in the net, guys. Okay, I'm gonna get over to this other bank, and I believe I'm gonna keep this fish to have a fresh dinner tonight. Now, typically, if this was a wild fishery, I would let this fish go. Now, don't get me wrong. There are wild browns in this river, but it's also stocked heavily with browns, so keeping one isn't gonna hurt a thing. We're gonna come up here and get a look at this guy. Look at that beautiful Michigan brown. That was such an exciting hit on the jerk bait, and this fish is gonna be our dinner tonight. Ah, I'm putting it up while I'm ahead, man. I'm putting it up while I'm ahead. Look at this rain, baby. It is coming down. It's been coming down the entire day. I'm gonna try to knock out another 10 miles until I set up camp this evening, which will be around eight o'clock or so, but I got a long ways to go. You guys hear that owl? There's an owl going. Oh, there's ducks flying. I've been listening to them for about the last five minutes just off in here. Just a beautiful float. The rain has finally stopped. It's getting to be about eight o'clock, so the next good spot I find to camp, I'm gonna pull over and set up. We're gonna call this home for the night. Golly, man. What a day. Not exactly sure how far I went, but I pushed. I was in the canoe for around 11 hours, and I pushed straight through for probably nine hours. My body's sore. I'm ready to get a fire going, get some dry clothes on, and get this camp set up. What I'm gonna do tonight is I'm gonna tip the canoe upside down. That way I can keep a lot of my stuff underneath the canoe and keep it dry, and I can also have a dry boat first thing in the morning and won't have to bail water because it looks like we're gonna get more rain coming tonight. Well, actually, from what I heard this morning, I actually didn't see a single other person on the river for probably the last 10 hours of floating. I saw a couple guys fishing this morning, but there was nobody on the water today. Well, as you can probably imagine, it's been about impossible to find any dry wood. Everything is completely soaked, but I'm determined to have a hot meal tonight and cook this trout up. Okay, so with our trout here tonight, guys, all I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna gut this fish, and I'm gonna thoroughly rinse this fish well and remove all the guts and the gills. I'm gonna keep the head on this fish. The head has all kinds of flavorful fats and oils that will add just a ton of flavor as we cook this fish down. Look at that. Look at that beautiful, bright orange-red meat. This fish is gonna be absolutely delicious tonight over our fire. Well, I was just thinking, since I was already soaked to the bone, I might as well go full send. This water will take your breath away right now. Here we go. Whoo, whoo-hoo-hoo, baby, whoo-hoo! That's what I'm talking about, baby, your little bath in the river, man, yeah! Well, it's times like this, fat wood is essential. I'm just gonna build this fire very slow. That way I can dry out the wood as I go. Okay, with our fish here, I just hit it with a good layer of garlic salt, and I also hit it with a good layer of Zatarain's blackening seasoning as well, and this'll add a nice kick to it. Well, I've had a hard time getting the fire built up, but our fish is on, and to go with our fish, I'll throw on our last couple of dogs as well, and Oliver and I are gonna have no problem mucking all this food tonight. Look at that, wow! That is gonna be so delicious. Whoo-hoo-hoo! That fish is so flavorful and so delicious all by itself, but the garlic salt, Zatarain's, and butter doesn't hurt anything either. This is an absolute treat. Oh my gosh. Well, Oliver has passed out. We're zipped up in the tent. I just finished off a couple mosquitoes on the ceiling. Oh, there's one more right there. I get him now. Oh my gosh, where'd he go? We gotta get him. There's just bloodstains from mosquitoes on the top of the roof, man. Look at that one. I got that guy last night. They were just sucking our blood all night, and I know there's one on the loose. Gosh, we gotta get him. Have to, oh, there he is. Where'd he go? There he is. Oh, oh, there he is. If you don't kill them when you wake up in the morning, I guarantee they will be on the ceiling, absolutely bloated, full of your blood or Ollie's blood. So you gotta hunt them down, man. You gotta kill them all before you go to bed. Well, good morning, and welcome back to day three. Wow. We were both in an absolute coma last night. I slept so hard. I don't even know what time it is, but let's take a peek outside. I gotta go out and use the bathroom. Oh yeah, oh, okay, oh, look at all the mosquitoes. Oh my God, they're ready to attack. Show those mosquitoes. Oh my God, they're just, look at this. They're just waiting out there, thirsty. It's time to face the enemy. What a beautiful morning. Time to cover some miles, buddy. He's trying to cover some miles. Get some stretches in, yeah. Yeah, squirrel. Let's get this packed up. Let's get this show on the road. I don't even know. I might not even make breakfast this morning. It was hard to get that fire going last night. I might just hit some jerky, some trail mix, and push down to our next stop. Let's get rolling. Okay, here we go. Day three. Well, it is just about the most beautiful day you could ask for. One thing that I love about filming is it's almost like you're hunting. So as I'm floating downriver, I'm just constantly scanning the riverbanks, and I'm gonna see if I can get some cool shots with the big camera today. I wasn't able to film with it much yesterday, but the scenery was absolutely beautiful, and we're gonna be going through some beautiful areas today as well. This river has a beautiful stain to it. If I had more time, I'd definitely fish, but I gotta cover some miles today. I slept in a little bit, made sure I got a good night's rest, and we gotta put the miles on the paddles today. And of course, we are going to annihilate this bag of jerky. We have trail mix and old Trapper on the menu this morning. We've jumped six or seven deer so far, and he is just on high alert, in the zone. Well, I've been hearing some thunder rumbling off in the background, and judging by those clouds, it looks like we could get hit with some storms at any time. That's what I love about filming, man. That's what I was talking about this morning. That was so cool, that was so cool. We got close to that deer. She had no idea we were there until we were right up on her. Never grab any branches. Just line up your boat and let them brush right over ya. Many a canoe and kayak have flipped that way. I've been pushing all day today, but I gotta throw a lure a few times. Going with the Junior Hot Tiger, see if I can catch a walley for dinner. Hot tiger, baby, come on. Walley, let's get a walley for dinner tonight. The water is dirty, it's very dirty. Did I get lucky today with the storms? There was about a four hour period where we were straddling the line of a thunderstorm. I could hear thunder and lightning just cracking off several miles south of us, but it didn't connect where we were at. But I was ready, I was ready to take cover. We're 12 hours of pushing, and I'm exhausted. I think we're gonna call this good for the night. And Ollie is ready to get out, and look at this. Nice sand bank, I'm gonna go take a look, and if it looks good, we'll set up here for tonight. What do you think, mister? What do you think, are you ready for some food? Are you a hungry boy, are you a hungry boy? Oh, look at this, we even have a nice fireplace. Oh yeah, look at this beautiful view. My legs are jello, I'm exhausted, I'm a little chilly. I'm ready to get a fire going, and look at this. Somebody left us some firewood, yeah! Look at that, nice. Ready to get a big dinner going. We're gonna do venison backstrap and bacon grease. And we'll have to figure out a side, maybe we'll do rice or pasta with it. But I'm throwing down, I'm hungry, I'm tired, and need to refuel. This is gonna be one killer campsite. It's not light. Well, so far on this trip, the bugs haven't been bad. But tonight, we're getting eaten alive. But I have a thermosel. And if you guys have never used one of these, this is a must if you're camping in the Northwoods during the summertime. All you do, turn it on, ignite it, you'll hear it light, and it's good to go. Oh, look at this, the last bit of backstrap we have left over from this past season. And we get to enjoy it here tonight at our camp. I'm just gonna clean up a little bit of that talon. And look at that, guys. Nice, delicious, thin little slices. And we are going to have a venison feast here tonight at our camp. And all I'm gonna do for seasoning is hit it with a layer of garlic salt on both sides, and we'll call that good. This meat is gonna be so delicious and so tender. Okay, we're going in with our pasta. Okay, with our pasta, I have a jar of this lemon and herb sauce that I got from Costco. And we're gonna put this over our pasta here. And we just have a mixed array of noodles in there. But this is gonna be delicious with our venison. Oh, my gosh, are you kidding me? Listen to that. Oh, yeah, baby. Golly, look at that. This is gonna be so tender and so delicious. Venison backstrap, fried in a little bit of bacon grease, of course. I'm gonna take this off pretty much as soon as I'm finished flipping it. Okay, here we go. First, we're going in with our pasta. And then, of course, a few pieces of backstrap on top. Well, once again, what a treat this is. And I got a sweat worked up from cooking all this and leaning over the fire, but here we go. First bite with our pasta. Our venison's still a little hot. That pasta is good, that sauce is good. And I can't wait to try this with some piker walleye, a nice flaky white meat fish, and that pasta sauce over a bed of pasta. Woo! Hopefully we can make that happen on this trip. All day I've been thinking about this meal right here, just knocking through miles of water until we could cook up some backstrap and pasta over the fire. Okay, you ready for this? Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, yeah. Now, if you look at the map here, we started just off I-75 near Grayling, where my finger is, and our blue dot is the location. And we're going to right about here, right on the edge of the screen. Good morning, and welcome to day four, people. Helicopter coming over. Oh, yeah, look at that guy, right on top of the tree line. Well, we can't hear any roads, but we have helicopters coming over. Look at the Coast Guard up there. Well, I've decided to put the hustle and bustle on pause for a couple hours here this morning. I'm gonna utilize the nice breeze we have, the sunshine, and the heat, to thoroughly dry out all my gear. Even after yesterday, with it being a cloudy day most of the day, everything was still extremely damp. And the inside of my tent was very damp as well. So I got that drying out. I got my gear laid out. My food bag even got some moisture in it. And I'm gonna get everything dried out and plan to be on the water by about 11 o'clock this morning. That way that'll give me a good, solid eight, nine hours of pushing today. And we'll see how far we make it. Well, the bacon happened to be eight last night, so we're gonna make more bacon. Ah, a little smoke to the face. Here we go. Actually, first bite. Come here. First bite, of course. He's like, are you kidding me? Ha ha. The bacon is so crispy. The coffee is hot. Life is good. Hop in, bud. Good boy. All right, here we go. Day four is underway. We are packed up. The canoe is loaded down for bear. Everything's dried out, repacked, organized. And we're ready to kick some butt today. Let's see how far we can make it. I traveled the entire day yesterday without seeing anybody. And so far today, haven't seen anybody either. Well, it is just amazing how narrow this river was when we started. And now, look at how wide it is. It is widened right out, and this wind is blowing me back upstream. We are officially breaking the sandbar and entering Houghton Pile Reservoir. This is a milestone right here, and I'm gonna keep trucking through water. The wind isn't too bad thus far, so I'm gonna see how far I can make it through here. I might have to pull off, but that'll be okay. We have the rest of the afternoon, and the goal now is to make it through this reservoir. And already, I can feel the loss of current. We're gonna be working for it coming through here. Well, by sheer luck, the wind totally switched directions, and we have a beautiful tailwind taking us right up through this reservoir right now. I'm just gonna kick back, steer a little bit, and let the wind do the work. But did we get lucky? If the wind would've stayed the same direction as it was this morning, we would really be fighting it right now. Well, we can actually do a little fishing for the first time in a couple days. I'm gonna throw this X-Rap here, twitch this thing across these weeds, see if we can get a pike or something to come out and slam it. Come on, we need a fish dinner tonight, come on! I'm catching a hard tailwind right now. I'm starting to crank, I'm just gonna troll. Okay, this is what we're doing, we're trolling. I got a perfect speed going right now. I might have to slow this down a little bit. Put out the bag, baby, put out the bag. Okay, we got an X-Rap trolling, baby, in the canoe. Look at this, wind's just clipping us across this lake right now. Trolling an X-Rap, here we come, across the lake. Okay, here we go, I got two deep divers rigged up. I'm gonna get one good troll all the way down this reservoir. Oh, that was a botched cast. Look at that little guy. Oh, oh, oh! Oh, oh! This thing just got annihilated, oh my God, oh my God. Oh, we got a fish on! Alex, we got a fish on! Oh, Alex, stay there, buddy, Alex, stay. We got a fish on, guys. We got a fish on, baby, we got a fish on! It's a little bass, it's a bass the size of the lure. Look at that, what an ambitious feller. Wow, man, oh, oh, ah, ah, look at that. He's hungry. Back out we go. Got a bass, baby, ha, ha, ha, I got a bass! Nice, I got a decent fish on, a little bit better this time, a little better, man. Oh, double, double, double, oh, my other rod, Ollie, stay, stay, stay, gosh, Ollie, stay. Who knows what this is? Oh, it came off, whatever it was, it came off, had another bite, though. Well, finally, rounding the last corner here in this reservoir, just around the corner here, right where my finger's at, is the dam, and look at how far we've came. As far as you can see, it's only half of the reservoir that we paddled through. On the other side, there's a whole other arm, and it's long. Well, we have made it to the end of Holton Pile Reservoir, where the canoe kayak portage is, and we are gonna get portaged here and keep heading downriver, but what a milestone this has been. I was wondering where this guy went. Well, I just can't believe how much different the river looks down here. Above the reservoir, the water was high and dirty. It was pretty much chocolate milk, but below this first dam here, it is gin clear, and you can see clear to the bottom. It's amazing, the difference. And after all that, it's time for a cold Coke and a little old trapper. I'm officially out of ice, so I'm gonna enjoy these Cokes while they're still cold. Still have one left after this. We have a good section of river ahead of us here until we reach the next reservoir, and then we'll portage one more dam before we'll be in the home stretch to Lake Michigan. Get ready to run our little baby stretch of rapids here in Michigan. And it's still fun to paddle, little baby. We're cranking through here. Okay, hop up. All right, we're gonna go check out this spot for a spot to camp. Look at this big hole here. So if we can set up camp here, we'll be able to do some fishing right off the shore. Protect the camera. I brought a planer board, and it's the perfect size. I'm gonna be able to run a lure out into this hole with a planer board while we set up camp and make dinner tonight. Okay, check this out. I have my deep diver. I have a rod holder and a planer board, and we're gonna try to put this deep diver and let it work in this current. There's a huge hole here, and if we have any luck, we'll be eating a walleye tonight. Okay, first step, we have to cast out our lure. We'll just put them out about 30 feet or so. Then I have to hook up the planer board. Now we gotta get the planer board in current. Here we go, it's working. It's getting out there. Look at this. Gotta walk it up to the top of the hill, get some more current going. Look at that board going out there. Ha ha! That deep diver's just gonna work in the current, and we'll see if we can get a fish to come hit this thing tonight. All right, here we go. Night four. Let's get camp set up. Does that feel good, baby? Woo! And the dog's got the zoomies! And the dog! Ho ho ho! What do you think, buddy? Are you gonna go swimming? What do you think? Ha ha ha ha ha! Okay, well, for dinner tonight, I'm going to make a roast beef hash scrambler with some potatoes here. And we're gonna call that a meal. Then look at this. We'll throw a big scoop of our bacon grease we saved from this morning in there. And on the fire we go. And now we go in with our roast beef hash. I forgot my can opener, so I had to pry open the can with some pliers. And that right there is gonna be an awesome dinner. I feel like I should be in a Spaghetti Western right now, eating corned beef hash right out of the pan, baby. Potatoes, roast beef, hash. And that's a dang good scrambler where I come from, people. Yeah, buddy. Right in this way. That work? Well, good morning. And welcome to day five. Wow, look at this view. Look at the fog coming off the river. What a beautiful, beautiful morning. Oh my goodness. Last night I had a bite on this stick bait in this deep hole. I ran that planer board for a while, but didn't have any bites that I'm aware of. But I had another bite first cast this morning. I'm not sure what it was, but there's something out here. It's toying with me. All right, our pot of drinking water is complete. And once again, we're ham-bamming corned beef hash. Get in there. Good boy. All right, here we go. Day five. Looking to have another big day today. We have a long stretch of river to go. We're gonna paddle through another reservoir that's just as big, if not bigger, than the one we went through yesterday and have to portage another dam as well. It's gonna be a challenging, productive, but exciting day. Let's get on the river. Guys, look at the baby fawn right here. She's just learning to walk. Guys, there's a brown trout right in front of us eating insects off the surface. He's right at the tip of my paddle right now. Well, we're just coming into the backwaters of Tippie Dam and we're gonna have a long paddle through this reservoir. Aha, at last, I see Tippie Dam. It felt like it was never gonna end, man. It was just corner after corner after corner and all these different little channels kinda confused me. It was almost like a maze. But we're on the right path and Tippie is in sight. I've been trolling these deep divers all the way across the lake as I've been paddling, but I haven't had a single bite. The fish dinner awaits still. Last portage. Well, I'm about an hour into my portage and if anybody's ever done this portage or knows the area that I'm in right now, you probably know just about how much fun I'm having, which is absolutely none. But look at this. Here is the giant dam that we just portaged. And the portage is way up and around on that side from the boat launch. I had to walk all my gear up and around the hill, bring the canoe down the road, and I have some of my gear there and I have the other half of my gear up on the top of this hill. But it's been about a four-step process so far and like I said, I'm about an hour into it. All right, here we go, leaving Tippie. Oh, my boiled campfire water has a unique smoky flavor to it. Gotta stay hydrated, though. And of course, our daily steak. He's a turkey boy, he's a turkey boy. My forearm right here is in so much pain. It was painful all day yesterday and today it's been hurting bad. I can't even touch or grip anything with this arm right now. Well, we just passed underneath High Bridge. This is right near the town of Brethren, Michigan and it's a very popular fishing location. The next bridge is the M55 Bridge, pretty much right at the mouth of the Big Manistee River where it flows into Manistee Lake. Well, if you've been a regular viewer to this channel for a while, you probably recognize this spot here and we're gonna call it home for the night. All right, good one. Go, go, go, go, man and ship, man and ship. Wow, what a day that was. What a few days it's been. My goodness, has this been an adventure. Oh, no, Oliver! Ollie just absolutely, oh, boy. Oliver! Ollie just bolted off after a whole herd of deer. Oh, he came right back, good boy, good boy. I probably heard five or six deer take off and he came back, thankfully, geez. We'll go for one more set up here. Night five, here we go. Our pasta's going, corned beef hash and we are just enjoying a beautiful night here at camp. The stars coming down. The sun's just set below the horizon. Wow. Well, good morning and welcome to day six. It is day six, the final day of this adventure and we have another big day ahead of us today. We have about 30 miles to go, 30 miles left to river to paddle through and then we will have reached our destination on Lake Michigan. Okay, here we go. Breakfast on day six. We're going with peaches and cream oatmeal and one more corned beef hash scrambler. I was gonna make some pancakes this morning but I wanted to get on the river a little bit sooner so we're just keeping it simple. We're doing oatmeal, little corned beef hash. We'll throw down and get traveling. Well, look at how beautiful of a morning it is. Well, I can already tell it's gonna be a scorcher today and we're gonna have to stay hydrated so I had to boil off a pot of drinking water before we could go. We'll let that cool off in the shade for a few minutes and we'll be good to go. All right, here we go. Time to set sail. And we are officially pushed off. Here we go, day six. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, the eagle. Oh my gosh, the eagle just attacked a bird. Oh my gosh, I don't know if I got that on camera. That was insane though. Let's see if we can see him. I literally watched that eagle just slam a bird out of midair. And now we're just passing the Rainbow Access site and there is a stiff west wind. It might be a slow roll going down through the lower river once the river widens out and the current slows down but the wind is clipping. Wow, got whitecaps coming back up the river. Well, we're just passing Coho Bend Campground and I'm almost through with my last bag of trail mix. Perfect timing. Wash it down with some Manistee River water. Well, we just passed under the Highway 55 Bridge which is just outside of the city of Manistee. And now passing Enceladus Campground. Well, at last we have reached the mouth of the big Manistee River right here in Manistee Lake. Look at this. The channel is right on the other side of the lake here. We're gonna cross the lake, go up through the channel all the way to where it meets Lake Michigan and then we will have reached our final destination. I can't believe this. The finish line is in sight, baby. I can see the big lake. It looks like there might be some pretty good waves out there. Okay, here we go. We're about to round our last bend here and look at that, baby. There's Lake Michigan. Woo! We have accomplished our goal. Well, we have officially made it to the mouth of the Manistee Channel from the city of Grayling to here at the city of Manistee and we have conquered the big Manistee River, baby. What an adventure. Well, I believe that's a wrap, folks. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. What an amazing adventure. I've been wanting to do this my entire life. I've been thinking about it and finally made it happen and can cross it off my bucket list. We have now seen every inch of navigable water on the big Manistee River. Thanks so much for watching, everyone and comment down below here what style of adventure videos you guys love to see and if you like this one, I'll definitely have some more coming up. Thanks for watching and we will see you in our next episode.