You can paddle the Shiawassee River right through downtown Linden

The same river that turned the grindstones at Linden’s old mill is a marked canoe route now. The Shiawassee River Heritage Water Trail is a long, low-key paddling corridor that threads across mid-Michigan, and one of its sections runs straight through Genesee County — past Holly, through Fenton, and right by the mill pond in downtown Linden before heading on toward Byron.

This is a friendly river to learn on. It’s a warm-water stream with a fairly slow current, the kind of water where a beginner can put in a kayak, drift, and not feel like they’re fighting anything. The trail is mapped in sections so you can bite off as much as you want — a short afternoon float between two parks, or a longer haul if you’re set up to shuttle a car downstream.

What makes paddling it different from hiking a trail is what you pass at water level. You slide under road bridges most drivers cross without a glance, behind the backyards and old industrial sites of towns built on this river two centuries ago, through stretches of marsh where you’re more likely to startle a heron than meet another person. The Shiawassee was a working river first — mills, dams, mill ponds, the cement and foundry trades that grew up along it — and the water trail follows that history without making a lecture of it.

The Linden mill pond, sitting right behind the 1850s gristmill, is one of the easy places to get on or off. Bring a paddle and a little patience for the slow current, and the river that built the town will carry you through the middle of it.