Presque Isle

Low water, the only real 'boatable' rapid at this level. Everything upstream was a portage/scrape down

Ran the Lower Presque Isle October 27th, 2013 at 6.1 on the South Boundary Rd. bridge gauge. Earlier this year there was a massive log jam river left against the middle bridge pillar and the shore which blocked a lot of the flow from running against the gauge. The park has cut out the jam, so the bridge reading is accurate as of 10/27/13. The only issue is new wood along the run below the bridge. The wood on the right side boof of Nawadaha Falls is still there, but looks cleaner than last year. We were able to run everything fine, with only Manido Falls presenting an issue running river left, as a small diameter log is laying ~8' off the left bank pointed downstream. We skirted the log on the right, still pretty close to 'main line' on the left side. Center right on Manabezho Falls has a pretty massive log laying up against the falls, which was there earlier this year. A small tree is still dangling over the left line in Zoom Flume. Where the river splits (left is Zoom Flume and right channel only runs with a lot of water), right channel had a huge log teetering over the edge (which we pushed in earlier this year) has floated away. This means the Presque must have had a big water event this past summer!

Matthew Cooper, Patrick Duffy, and Kaz ran this in early August when the Black was running 500 or so.
Patrick found a rock when running the furthest tip of Manabezo and gave his creeker a nasty nose job when he over rotated trying to pencil in. basically, his bow wentback into the curtain of water and he landed on his face, so dont do that!
Other than that, the Presque is amazing and the trail that runs along it os equally so!

Thanks to Brian Aho for this line.

The Presque Isle is one of the classic expert runs in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. This stretch of the river is contained within Porcupine Mountains State Park.
It may look like it, but this isn't some warm exotic place! Manabezho Falls is just one of the big drops on the Presque Isle. Paddlers do not treadly lightly on this river.
The rock basin of the Presque Isle erodes in amazing layers. During spring melt this is all covered with tumbling water.

Among the most impressive drops in the U.P., at 150' across and 20' tall, Manabezho Falls was not routinely run until the mid-1990's.

This beautiful falls is one of the highest in this part of the Upper Peninsula. While it has been run successfully (reportedly many times, many lines, and a variety of 'boofs' and 'pencils'), we are aware also of at least one major piton resulting in serious injury.