Canoeing the Grand River
It’s lush with overgrown trees and full of wildlife. A place you could paddle down with a canoe or kayak and see fish, turtles, large blue heron, hawks and beavers. The Grand River runs right through the heart of the Greater Lansing area, yet people rarely take advantage of this splash of nature in their own neighborhood.
“It’s kind of a hidden little secret in Lansing. Within a mile you feel like you’re in another time, secluded and there’s nature all around you,” Trey Rouss said. Rouss, 43, a manager at Summit Sports in East Lansing, kayaks on the river three or four times a week. “Rarely do I see anyone out there.”
Instead of using the Grand River, people will drive four hours up north to go kayaking and canoeing on a Saturday and end up shoulder to shoulder with other kayaks and canoes, Jay Hanks said. Meanwhile, the Grand River is practically empty.
Hanks, 50, is the president of the Lansing Row and Paddle Club, a non-profit social network that promotes and develops human-powered paddling in the Lansing area.
“I like the quietness and sense of solitude the Grand can give me,” Hanks said. “The view is amazing. People just don’t think of it as a resource.”
Hanks hopes that, with rising gas prices, people will start to take advantage of the Grand and other rivers in the Lansing area.
“There are plenty of places I’ve never even seen on the Grand and they are only a half mile away,” Hanks said.
The river has several different streams, pockets, islands and other places to explore, John Hay said. There are also larger islands on the river past Waverly Bridge.
Hay, 50, has been kayaking on the Grand River for six years with his brother.
“The river is very easy to navigate,” Hay said. “You can stop and fish just about anywhere. There are not many logs and the river is never that deep”
The river is about three feet deep anywhere you stand in it, Hay said. “This keeps motor boats out of your way on the river, too,”
Day trips are perfect on the Grand River because, no matter where you end up, you’re still close to home, Hanks said. And the river offers a variety of trip experiences.
Hanks uses the river outside of town by Diamondale for a workout, he said. “I put in there and paddle upstream, to work my arms,” he said.
For a casual afternoon he paddles down by Grand Ledge to capture all of the scenery. In the winter he takes advantage of the more urban areas in Downtown Lansing because the river never freezes there.
“It’s beautiful in the winter,” Hay said. “Right after a snow everything looks like lace.”
Hanks enjoys going out in the fall with a group of four to eight people, he said. “You can see all the maple trees changing and the hardwoods around it,” Hanks said.
Despite its beautiful scenery there is a stigma that the Grand River isn’t clean, and that leaves it under appreciated.
“A lot of it has to do with the nature of the river. The roots, rocks and soil make it look murky,” said Tom Irwin. “These things make it look darker but it doesn’t mean it’s not clean.”
Irwin, 22, used to hang out on an island on the river when he was younger. He feels people not thinking of it as a recreational area is part of the problem.
People have to stay on the river long enough to see for themselves, he added.
“Once you get into the nature, it’s beautiful,” Irwin said.
Rouss started using the river when he first moved to the Lansing area 10 years ago. “I would mention to people that I’d gone on the Grand and they would just cringe,” Rouss said.
The city does studies on the river to make sure it’s clean and they sponsor projects to clean it up every year, he said. The city does a river clean up every spring and is currently working on the sewer separation project, scheduled to be done in 2020, to keep all sewage run-off out of the Grand River.
Summit Sports helps with the river clean-up each year and does their best to promote sporting on the Grand, Rouse said.
“People just need to become more aware of it,” he said.
He suggested a type of river awareness event, outside of just the regular clean-up each year.
“Some people don’t even realize how easy it is to get on The Grand,” Rouse said. “And every time I take people out there, they get blown away by how beautiful it is. It’s just a great inner city escape.”
by Sherri Powers
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I enjoyed this article. I grew up in the surrounding area and have never personally been down the waters of the Grand River. The article allowed me to view the GR in a positive light.
could you please tell me aput in point and a take out point usingdiamondale as put in point where do we park to get out would like three hour trip and a little about trees down ect’