What are the top white water rafting locations near Michigan (class IV, dam-fed)?

Question

Probably looking at dam-fed class IV-V rapids, within driving distance of Flint, MI.

Answer 1

Ralfcoder is right: the whole state of Michigan is too flat and sandy for there to be any real whitewater -- wrong geology, I'm afraid (I used to live there). You need to come down here to southwest Pensylvania and northern West Virginia where we have rocks, mountains and big rivers with some of the premiere whitewater in the country.

Pittsburgh (where I live) is only a 5 hour drive from Flint (via I-96 to 23 to I-80 to I-79). Once you get here we are about 2-3 hours from the Class III-V Cheat Canyon (which I've done, a 6 hour wild ride!), 4-5 hours from the Class V-VI Gauley River (one of the toughest paddles in the US and way too much for me!). There are several Class III-IV rivers within 1-2 hours of Pittsburgh also, notably the various stretches of the Youghiogheny to the south, the Class III Conemaugh to the East and Class IV Slippery Rock Creek to the North

Answer 2

Then you'll have to drive to Pennsylvania, West Virginia, etc.  Look for the New, the Cheat, the Gaulley, the Youghogheny rivers.  I know I mangled the spelling of those, but that should be close enough to start a search.

Answer 3

There is some whitewater in MI - probably not a lot of runnable Class 4 right now - levels look too low, but the best resource on the web for locating a runable river is the American Whitewater website www.americanwhitewater.com

Here is the rivers page for MI:

http://www.americanwhitewater.org/conten...

Have fun!

Answer 4

Ralfcoder is right:  the whole state of Michigan is too flat and sandy for there to be any real whitewater -- wrong geology, I'm afraid (I used to live there).  You need to come down here to southwest Pensylvania and northern West Virginia where we have rocks, mountains and big rivers with some of the premiere whitewater in the country.  

Pittsburgh (where I live) is only a 5 hour drive from Flint (via I-96 to 23 to I-80 to I-79).  Once you get here we are about 2-3 hours from the Class III-V Cheat Canyon (which I've done, a 6 hour wild ride!), 4-5 hours from the Class V-VI Gauley River (one of the toughest paddles in the US and way too much for me!).  There are several Class III-IV rivers within 1-2 hours of Pittsburgh also, notably the various stretches of the Youghiogheny to the south, the Class III Conemaugh to the East and Class IV Slippery Rock Creek to the North.

Leave Flint Friday afternoon, stay in Pittsburgh overnight and you could do a couple of these runs over a weekend and drive back late Sunday.  Right now we've had so much rain that most of these streams are super dangerous so you may want to wait a few weeks though.