Thirty hours on the Huron

continued

We made it to Gallup Park hot and a bit tired. There was a bit of a headwind, so we sheltered on the back side of one of the islands, where I sampled some ripe elderberries. They had a bitter aftertaste—I decided I like them better as wine and jam.

We rested for a bit at the park, got water, and used the facilities. The whole place is geared toward rentals, so we weren’t especially welcome taking up space on the dock. But the guys working the livery were friendly as they asked us to move over.

We passed under US-23, portaged around Geddes Dam, and finished off our fruit salad to the roar of the overflow. Downstream the energy felt different, maybe because this stretch is much less commonly canoed, maybe because we were finally out of Ann Arbor after a full day of paddling.

We found a place for the night near Fleming Creek, close to a shelter with benches and lots of graffiti. A boardwalk led into the woods through an undergrowth of ginger, ramps, and poison ivy. Perhaps it was a funny note to camp near the sewage treatment plant, but the location made sense!

Dinner was corn on the cob, stir-fried veggies, and an apple pie that Gary baked on the spot. Wow! There were a few sprinkles, but no real rain—it was the mosquitoes that drove us into the tent.