NATHAN INVINCIBLE

As beautiful and nasty of a river as they come! Tenmile Creek, located west of Ewen, is a headscratcher. On the one hand, the 15 or so miles that we paddled are some of the most wild and scenic little river around. On the other hand, it's totally miserable and a major pain in the butt. Should you paddle it? 

If you're like me, sure! I have had a long-standing mission to visit as many abandoned cabins as I can in the Ottawa National Forest, and I knew of several on this stretch of sleepy river. I rallied my buddy Kyle, who is a professional bushwhacker as well, and we headed out for a weekend's exploration.

We began on Weir Creek off of Old M-28 outside of Ewen. Tenmile would intercept Weir in just a mile or two amidst completely flat wetland channels and beaver dams. All told our journey would drop just 30' over 15 miles, making this a very slow trip. Paddling over 27 beaver dams wasn't actually too bad because we had plenty of water to float in the backwaters. Once the beaver dams quit though, we found ourselves dragging across sand bars and gravel beds, along with a few rocky 'rapids' where the paltry current 'rushed' down several inches of elevation – much too shallow to actually paddle. The forest nearby was swampy and ugly to traipse through on our way to a few particularly rotten cabins full of nothing more than porcupine poop by the shovelful.

Up until about 2/3 of the way through our spirits were moderately high given the circumstances. Then the logjams and downed trees started, and they never really quit. No current plus getting out every 500-1000' made for slow going, especially at the end of a hot day on the water. We pushed on knowing there was a nice camp just a little ways ahead on the South Branch Ontonagon River, just after Tenmile's confluence with the Cisco Branch. 

We finally made it, and to celebrate we took a swim at Eighteenmile Rapids. The South Branch also had quite low flows, but I found a perfect swimming hole just beyond the first stretch of rapids. Score!

The next day, we still had another 14 or so miles to paddle on the slow-moving South Branch until we reached the take-out. We visited a few more old camps along the way and didn't have quite so many logjams to worry about. All in all Tenmile isn't ideal, but it wasn't the worst either. Worth a try! Now I know another way to get onto this stretch of the idyllic South Branch.