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| April of 2002 saw near record high water in the Menominee River. Flowing somewhere in the neighborhood of 16,000 cfs, Piers Gorge was an amazing sight. Above left shows the huge breaking wave which formed where the Second Sister normally exists. Above right is the view up toward Misicot Falls. |
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| Above left shows a river-wide trough/wave which formed well downstream of where Misicot Falls should have been. Above right shows a huge wrapping wave which formed well downstream of where Volkswagen Rock normally is. (VW was completely undetectable! Not a bump or a ripple in the surface of the water!) Looking downstream, an amazing series of waves and chaotic currents lead down through the gorge. |
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Heading upriver to Sand Portage, we found this impressive ¾-river-wide wave (left photo above), which looked like it would be an awesome sweet surf, if you could regain it! There was a decent eddy river-left, but there was a squirrelly 'break' in the left part of the wave to that looked like it could be difficult to get past to get out to the sweetest part of the wave.
Looking upstream, river-left, what is normally a rather tame overflow channel with a couple small playable holes and an island of trees was a major channel, with water flowing through the trees. |
We took the occasion to have a look at the dam and falls at Little Quinnesec. An amazing torrent of water cascaded off the top from not only the 'usual' spillways, but also from closer to the buildings. It would have been amazing to get a better view, but this area (both sides of the river) is all privately (corporately) owned.
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