Ontonagon, M.Br., MI

Gauge Information

River Description

Put-in: From Bond Falls Road, carry down to below Bond Falls, which is very scenic, but all lands shallow.
Take-out: At wayside above Hwy.28 unless you are VERY sure of your skills. Agate Falls is 1/3 mile downstream, and falls 40'+ onto bedrock. It is definitely worth the hike down to view it after you have secured your boat in/on your vehicle.

Shuttle Information: Length: 11.8 miles, Time: 17 minutes

2006-06-30 Michael Toth Provides:
Three friends and I did this stretch last weekend. Water levels were quite low, down to ankle depth in some areas (the gauging station says 3.3ft right now, but it's further downstream and includes flow from some tributaries). Many of the shallow, rocky areas looked like they would be fun when the water is higher. Another 6" of water depth or so and many parts of this stretch will be great! I would expect many class II areas and a few class III's at higher water levels.

On the downside, this stretch required numerous portages due to fallen timber in the river as well as some beaver dams. Expect 10+ short portages over fallen logs. The beaver dams culminate in what we called "Beaver Castle", a huge network of beaver dams and fallen timber about halfway through this stretch. To get past this area, you will need to portage to the small tributary just to the right of Beaver Castle. You can't immediately see it unless you walk over some of the fallen timber towards the right. There may be a better route through this maze-like area of slow-moving tributaries, but that's the one we took. From here, the river goes through some marshy areas where the water moves very slowly. Eventually, it returns to rock-bed rapids very similar to early on in the river.

We actually hiked out of this area with a few miles left to go on the river, because we were moving too slowly to make any decent time and it was going to get dark in a couple hours. The hike is not fun, so don't do it if you can avoid it, and you may have to pass through some underbrush as well as marshy areas. Although the terrain isn't good for hiking, you really can't get lost as long as you keep moving N/NE/E. There's the river to the west, Agate Rd. to the east, and M-28 to the north, all within a few miles of the river.

A final note on the take-out. A ways up stream from Agate Falls there's a small, calm pool in the river. You can easily walk down to it from the parking lot. You should probably get out here unless you are very sure of your skills, because after this pool the river picks up very rapidly and has some strong rapids before the falls.

Overall, this river should be more fun at higher water levels as long as you don't mind the numerous portages.