Launch, Put-IN, Take-Out, Access Points, Bail Out Points

Shiawassee River from Fenton to Linden to Argentine

Strom Park, located on Fenton Mill Pond at Elizabeth St, has a boat launch and parking on site. Nice place to paddle when you do not want to spot vehicles. Go up the river towards Holly and you may run into a beaver dam. When you paddle back it is an easy walk to Dibbleville restaurants and stores.

Fenton Community Center on S. Leroy in the center of historic Fenton. Plenty of parking and a short walk to the river. Many city events take place at this location including a Farmers Market from August through mid-September. This section is usually shallower than further downriver.

Bush Park located on N. Leroy St. across from Dewey Automotive. Public restrooms, easy parking. Launch across the bridge at shallow area. You can also enter the park from Adelaide or Lincoln St. and take road to furthest parking in the south-east corner of the park. Launch by the old concrete bridge. It takes an hour plus to paddle to the DNR launch on Lake Ponemah from the Leroy St. bridge. This section is shallow in late July and August. There are sand and gravel bars in the center so stay to the outside of the curves. Volunteers of the most recent cleanup cut narrow paths through the fallen trees so you will need some skill to maneuver through the openings.

DNR launch for Lake Ponemah located on North Rd. You can continue to Linden paddling around the lake, entering Tupper Lake and back on the river. If you paddle the lake clockwise you’ll come to Tee Bonez. You can leave your boats on/near the docks while you enjoy refreshments. This lake is windy and choppy much of the time. Conditions worsen with the jet skis and power boats so be careful and stay close to shore, especially if you have a recreational kayak with a large, open cockpit.

Linden Mill Pond located by the Historic Linden Mill on Tickner St. You can park in the Sharp Funeral Home or library lot. There is a launch on the pond for easy in and out. Paddle up river to the lakes and back to town. Restaurants and unique shops are just a block away. Free concerts are at the gazebo Wednesday evening at 7:00 during the summer. Farmers market downtown during September.

Bridge Street, Launch the river is downhill from the north side parking lot behind the Bridge St. businesses. The water can be fast moving when the dam is open. Lots of twists and turns, some sections are shallow, wetlands area can be choked in weeds late in the season. Short ride (1 – 1 ½ hrs) to Hogan Rd. Longer paddle (3 – 4hrs) to McCasslin Lake Rd.

Hogan Road , Bridge just 1 ½ miles from downtown Linden by road but a hour plus paddle by river. Possible future site of public launch but difficult to get out in and out now. Look out for poison ivy.

McCaslin Lake Road , Final takeout for the Fenton to Linden to Argentine stretch. Parking on either side of the road. Fairly easy in and out. When paddling from Linden stay to the right when approaching Hatt (Shiawassee) Lake. You can continue to Byron but may have to portage over fallen trees.

Call Cheff’s Canoe Rental (989-288-7067).
They maintain the area from Byron to Shiatown near Vernon
Based at Walnut Hills Family Campground 7685 E. Lehring Rd. Durand MI 48429.

Put-In at Bush Park in Fenton

For those looking to launch their kayaks or canoes onto the Shiawassee River in Fenton,MI
--Bush Park offers a nice venue that is always open with no fees.
Bush Park launch site is best accessed off N. Leroy Street & 5th Street


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Update - Shiawassee River Conditions

A review by Doug Lanyk from HeadWatersTrails August 14th, 2008

My how things change.
Jimmy and I Took a trip yesterday evening from
Holly's Waterworks Park to Bush Park in Fenton.
My expectations were slightly low water and an easy paddle.
So much for my powers of precognition.
The water level at waterworks park was about 3 inches higher
than I would have thought. The recent rainfall that missed
my house must have hit somewhere else in the headwaters region.

It was a good start to the journey. The river was quiet
and the wildlife was repeatedly surprised by us quietly
gliding down the river. Numerous deer, fish, turtles,
and heron were motivated to seek further cover upon
being observed at close quarters.
There is a tree partially blocking the river just after
the 3 tubes. You can still paddle around on the the shallow side.
It's small and will be easily removed, but beware if you try it,
it's covered in poison ivy. The quiet paddle was just about
perfect until another downed tree just before Fish Lake Rd.
Last week Jimmy had to portage the tree. Last night we had enough
water to bump over it. Once again it was smooth sailing.

The next item of note was the water level in Haddon pond.
It was noticeably lower. The beaver created marsh following the
pond had lot's of fresh bank showing and a bit of challenging
paddling to go around trees we are accustomed to going over.
The reason for the low water level was soon apparent.
The big beaver dam is gone! I don't know if it had help
but the center of the old dam is now completely washed out.
No drop whatsoever. This has aesthetic ramifications.
The old dump that comes up to the river at that point
is now showing a whole lot of garbage.

Some new work near Scarbury's Ford was noticed too.
The ford itself had low water and we had to bump our way across.
The last beaver dam before the Fenton Millpond has been beefed up.
It's now bigger and badder than ever before.
It's about a one foot drop that we skated over.
The millpond itself was a pungent mess. It is severely grown over.
It was a bit of work to get the boats across.
After dumping our first load of picked up garbage off at
Strom park we were rewarded for our work by finding a
blue grass band playing at the bandstand in Downtown Dibbleville.

As we portaged the dam, lot's of curious people questioned us
about paddling on the river. It was a good opportunity for
educating more people about our efforts. Below the dam
we launched Jimmy in his canoe just before I did a seal launch
off of the rocks. It was fun when the the crowd listening to the
band brokeout in applause and cheers in the middle of a song.

From the Dam to Bush Park was a bigger challenge than the millpond.
The water had disapeared. It was very shallow for most of the rest
of the trip. Where we did the cleanup a couple of weeks ago it was
hard to tell we had been there.
The trees that were totally submerged when we cut those above are
now completely above the water. More garbage has been exposed too.
By this time it was getting dark and we were glad that my truck was
right there. A longer trip would have been less than fun.

Get outside.
Doug.

Shiawassee River Trail gets longer

A big thank you goes out to all the volunteers who helped cleaning out the river in Fenton. Debbie (our organizer), Tom, Dave, Willi, Sharon, Pete, Jimmy, Sara, Andy, Maggie (our car spotter) and I got wet and had fun. At 6:00 we started in Bush park in Fenton and went up stream toSilver Lake Road. There were 3 major log jams and several smaller blockages to remove as well as a couple of bags of garbage, plus a chair, a bike, a municipal garbage can... Working near the park had it's advantages. We just had to bag the garbage and put it up on the bank in the park. The city of Fenton will pick the garbage up. By 8:30 we had made it back to our starting point. Several people had to head home at this point. Five of us continued on down stream to our trucks about half way to us 23. This portion had a cleanup a month ago. We still found a bag of garbage and a few trees to trim back. The river is surprisingly scenic for being in the city. There are only a few lawns in view considering we are in the heart of the city. Aside from the seasonably low water this will be a fun segment. There is a fairly brisk current moving you along. It was 9:30 by then and time to call it a day. Now the bad news. There is more work to be done. As near as I can figure we have 8 more blockages to clear on the way to Lake Ponemah. One of which is fairly substantial. The date picked to finish this off is Sunday August 3rd. More details to follow. Once again thanks for your support. We are within striking distance of having a 20 mile stretch of scenic river in paddling shape.

Doug Lanyk - HeadWatersTrails__Vice-President