How's this for a statistic: 90 percent of the people who visit the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore never get further than 50 feet off a paved path. Really? There's so much more to experience, and a Glen Arbor expedition and guide company is aiming to get people further out there into the park.
River Eco Tour Company offers fishing, boating, hiking, biking and photography tours of various parts of the lakeshore, park and surrounding area, with several experienced guides.
"We employ seasoned guides that specialize in what we like to call "silent sports" focusing on hiking, canoeing, kayaking and fishing," says Mike Sutherland, who guides fishing and boating tours for the company.
The River may already be familiar to area residents or frequent visitors, since it operates kayak and tube rentals in Glen Arbor and Traverse City, as well as bike rentals in Traverse City.
This summer, they're trying to get the word out about new ways to explore the Leelanau and Sleeping Bear Dunes, with excursions like fishing trips on Tucker Lake, or the "First on the River" early-morning wildlife sighting boat tours.
"There are ten inland lakes within ten miles of our liveries on the Crystal and Boardman Rivers that are habitat to nesting loons, beaver, otter, bald eagles and migrating sandhill cranes," says Sutherland of the experiences the tours can offer. "Northern Pike, smallmouth bass, perch and bluegill all can be caught from our Jackson Coosa fishing kayaks."
Sutherland is originally from Glen Arbor and has years of experience at the helm of a boat, both on Lake Michigan, inland lakes, and in the Bahamas and Florida, as well as Nantucket. He says one lesser-known but great snorkeling spot is Pyramid Point, which hosts two shallow-water shipwrecks.
River Eco Tours also offers a range of biking tours, from beginner-level to advanced, and between one and six hours long; a range of hiking tours, over the dunes and from easy to strenuous.
You can contact River Eco Tours through its website to arrange any of the excursions.
Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Mike Sutherland, River Eco Tour Company
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