We are now taking reservations for our annual membership outing at the Wa Wa Sum Lodge. The lodge is located on the banks of the Main Stream of the Au Sables’s fabled “holy waters,” just east of Grayling, Michigan. The annual membership meeting to elect officers and new board members will held on Saturday, June 25, 2011 at 10:00am.
Please RSVP by June 17, 2010. Contact Larry Risbridger at either elrisbridger@charter.net or by phone at 616.890.8327 (cell) or 616.891.0148 (home). Please give your name, which nights we can expect you and your phone number/email address. If you have any questions, please give Larry a call. Space is limited, so make your reservation early.
Arrival is any time after noon on Thursday, June 23 with departure on Sunday, June 26. You may come for one, two or all three nights. This year’s nightly rate remains the same as last year at $150.00 for three nights, $100.00 for two nights and $50.00 for one night.
Accommodations
Past participants will tell you this is a great time. The lodge is an historical log building with a great porch along the front looking out over the river.
Sleeping arrangements are dorm style, so bring your own bedding or sleeping bag and towels.
Food
We will be providing cold breakfast foods for Friday and Sunday morning. Our only organized meal will be a large hot breakfast for all on Saturday morning. We will have other snacks and lunch items available. Please bring your own beverages.
The Fishing
Mid June is traditionally a super time to meet some of the best hatches of the season: yellow and olive stones, drakes and caddis flies. There’s a good change at big trout rising to a hex hatch at dark.
Fishing opportunities aren’t limited to trout; Wakeley Lake offers anglers fine bass and bluegill fishing. The location is a great jumping off place beyond the Au Sable mainstream. The north and south branches, and the Manistee, are minutes away.
Canoes are available if you want to explore any area streams or lakes. If you’re unfamiliar with Grayling-area fishing opportunities, we’ll be happy to point you in a good direction or let you tag along.
More information on Wa Wa Sum (courtesy of MSU)
Wa Wa Sum is a Michigan State University research and conference facility located on the Au Sable River six miles east of Grayling.
The name Wa Wa Sum means “Plain View” in the Ojibwa language and was given to the camp in 1905 by Chief David Shoppenagon, an Au Sable guide and woodsman. At that time, because of the extensive logging of the region’s pine forests, the view from the high bank on which the camp is built was unobstructed for miles to the south. Since then, the forests have regenerated, slowly obscuring the view beyond the river.
Chief Shoppenagon built the first building at the camp, now known as the Dining Room, in 1880. In 1897, Rubin Babbit, an Au Sable woodsman who later becam Michigan’s first wildlife officer, built a second structure, now the Administration Building. These first buildings were constructed of red pine and tamarack logs and used as a fishing camp for a group of Toledo businessmen. Other cabins of various sizes were added in later years: the Bullpen (1907); the Big Camp (1921/22); the Barn and the Guide’s Cabin (early 1930s).
The buildings and 251 acres of land were deeded to MSU in 1980 by owners Virginia Secor Stranahan and Frank Bell, descendants of two of the camp’s six original owners. Kevin Gardiner, a descendant of Rubin Babbit, is the camp’s present caretaker. He is the third generation of his family to perform these duties.
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