The Manistee River and the Hodenpyl backwater

The Manistee River — one of the great trout and canoe rivers of northern Michigan — runs along the upper edge of Wexford County, and the village of Mesick sits right at the heart of that country. Just downstream, the river widens behind Hodenpyl Dam into a long, quiet backwater called the Hodenpyl Dam Pond, a favorite for fishing, paddling, and camping, with the forest coming right down to the water.

This whole corner of the county is big-woods country. State forest land and the Manistee National Forest cover much of the ground, cold creeks like Slagle Creek feed the river with trout, and the North Country Trail threads through on its way across the state. One thing worth knowing if you fish: this stretch of the Manistee sits above the dams downstream, so the salmon and steelhead that run up from Lake Michigan don’t reach this far — but the resident trout fishing is excellent. It’s a quiet, green, water-and-woods part of Michigan, and Mesick is the natural jumping-off point.