Otter, W.Br.

Pike Lake Rd to Donken Tapiola Road (7.6 miles)

Reach banner
DifficultyII(IV)
Length6.3 mi
Avg Gradient33 fpm
GaugeSturgeon River Near Sidnaw, Mi
Flow Rate as of 24 minutes
4.52 ftbelow recommended
Reach Info Last UpdatedFebruary 17, 2015

River Description

A 4 mile access and 3.3 mile egress of moving water (broken only by random, very light rapids) nets you an exciting quarter-mile drop sequence.

Just 150' after the confluence with Bruno Creek, the start of the Otter Falls sequence is encountered. This opens with a 5' sloping ledge that serves as fair warning that the main drop is just ahead. Otter Falls is an extended low angle bedrock slide, with two steeper ledges of perhaps 5'-6' in close proximity near the start. This slide sequence extends for perhaps 200 yards before tapering off into light rockbed rapids.

Tauriainen Road (shown on maps) comes in (dead ends) very near this location. We are not sure whether part or all of that road may be private or how likely it is to be passable in early season or after heavy rains. If accessable, (and if the area is not all posted against trespass -- unknown to us at this time) it may alow a carry-up, huck, carry-out option as an alternative for seeing/running this falls sequence without doing a shuttle (and without having to run the (nothing-but-low-grade rapids) access and egress portions of this run. Google satellite view also shows a significant powerline clearing and has it marked as a road (though none is specifically visible, so it is likely a utility easement, and/or 4-wheeler/snomobile trail) coming into to river at 5.4 miles from the listed put-in (I.E., about a mile-and-a-quarter after the falls sequence). Absent one of those options working out, you are faced with an even more featureless paddle out of 3.35 miles. If the listed take-out at Donken Tapiola Road (off Hazel Swamp Road) is inaccessible early season, use Horoscope Road (listed on some maps as 'Limestone Mountain Road'). This adds another 2 miles of low-gradient paddling (for a total of 9.6 miles from our listed put-in). Fortunately (if this stretch is paddled), while there are no real features a

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River Features

Put In

Distance: 0 mi

Otter Falls

Class: IVDistance: 3.97 mi
Waterfall / Large Drop
Otter Falls

(See main description for the details.)

Take Out

Distance: 7.6 mi
Take Out

Alternate take-out

Distance: 9.63 mi
Access Point
Alternate take-out

An alternate take-out (in the perhaps unlikely event someone runs this, and finds the listed take-out inaccessible). Also site of a USGS sampling site, listing drainage at this point as 53.1 square miles.


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