Whistling Trout Society
Fall 2003
October 4-5
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Platt Map
Kaleva Hilton
Bear Creek (65K)
Larry Clark and I approached Kaleva on Nine Mile Road Friday night from the east. Cloudless patches revealed batches of blazing stars for the first time on our four hour trip from southeast Michigan . The constant light rain turned occasional.
We fought a tough mix of traffic and rain on the long journey north. I left Southfield at 4:30 pm that afternoon to pick up Larry Clark in Mt. Clemmons an hour later. We hit I-75 from M-59 about 6 PM after a few stops for final items and met immediate traffic. We hit the fivefecta of traffic. We were heading North on a Friday, during rush hour, with long stretches of construction, on the oppening day of whitetail bow season, in a constant rain.
We pulled into the puddled gravel parking lot at the Kaleva Tavern about 10:30 pm as my father was walking out the front door with phone in hand. He was planning on calling us to discover our ETA. This begins our first assault on Mr. James Perrine. My father told us he would head in and tell Jim that we were still outside Cadillac – to the chagrin of a fading Jimmy. We would wait 30 seconds and walk-in to surprise him. As Larry followed me through the door, I could see Jim shaking his head, gathering his keys and heard, “ …meet us at the cabin….” I slapped him heartily on the back and he knew he'd been had. That stunt probably gave us an extra 45 minutes at KT!
We made our greetings with fisherman who arrived earlier. My father, JimP, VaughnM, and JohnM. And we listened to the mixed fishing report from the day.
My father, JimP, and VaughnM had arrived on Thursday night for a full day of fishing on Friday. They were met with constant rain and occasional early snow. Lots of people were fishing our little stretch of water so they had to hike down to the long stretches before and below the cabins/artesian wells. As it rained, the water slowly crept up. However, it stayed clear and the fish were large. The four each carried their limit out of the water that afternoon. My father said he carried the largest three fish on average that he had ever pulled from our river. They carried those big fish up stream against a rising current and heavy rain and enjoyed a cold beer above the culverts. Later that night, we arrived to hear their stories. I told Larry as Jim held his palms apart to describe the fish he saw in the river that we could simply record one year and the next return to the bar and press play. This is our ritual. JimmyP reminded us that night that this was the 25 th year for the fall Wistling Trout Society trip to Kaleva.
We returned to the Kaleva Hilton for more festivities and a few hands of Euchre. That night, the rain, ice, and hail fell so hard it roared. I woke upstairs in the middle of the night to marbles bouncing off the metal roof vents.
Sorry... unfinished.
Charter
Members
Jim Perrine
Dave Borchelt
Larry Clark
Steve Walgren
Neil Lovering
Members
Mike Goodrich
Jim Willman
John Meyers
Vaughn McDaniel II
Scott Borchelt
Matt Brown
Jim Pernell
Matt Perrine
Steve Rose
Jim Williams
Frank Banco
Guests
Garland Hutto
Rob Bonam
Hersh Borchelt
Doug Franz
Rod Jenkins
Carl Kalberg
Tom Kline
Al Mull
Ken Notter
Ike Notter
Greg Rand
Ted Rhing
George Tallman
Dave Voelker
Todd Swenson
Matt Kline