Every other Wednesday throughout the summer a group called GRASP – Grand Rapids Area Sport Paddlers – “organizes” an evening paddle. Yesterday was the first time that the opportunity and motivation coincided and I decided to attend one. Josh, Megan and Claudia were also there, so we had our own mini-contingency of paddlers within the larger group.
The official paddle started at M21 and the Grand River and went to Knapp and the Grand River from 7:00 until whenever people got done. My unofficial portion started at Knapp and the Grand at 5:30 and went up stream to the M21 crossing. It was probably the most athletic paddle I’ve ever done, and it didn’t help that it was 85 degrees out.
On with my actual notes of the paddle. I’m guessing the Grand River has about 1mph current. This 1mph current carries the water through piles of farmland, so by the time it’s flowing past Ada it’s kind of pretty disgusting. It wasn’t quite so bad at the Knapp crossing, so I avoided a bit of the nast by not putting in at M21.
As for the paddle itself – there’s a lot of variety in the boats that people show up in. In sea kayaks we were definitely among the fastest of the group. I think I hit the landing third after having looped behind everyone else at the launch and paddling with minimal effort the entire way down stream. Without the paddle up stream, the excursion would have been more of a float than a paddle.
Moral of the story – I probably won’t bother going back to the Grand. The upper Thornapple is cleaner, has a nicer launch and almost as convenient when coming from work.
