A group of people could be seen tubing last year on the Big Manistee River after starting at Bear Creek. (Courtesy photo/Dan Reynolds)
From paddlesports to outdoor sport oases Manistee Adventures to open two new locations during M-55 detour ARIELLE BREEN VENTURE STAFF WRITER
Last year, Reynolds’ family bought Manistee Adventures from the previous owner.
A newer version of an existing outdoor adventure business is breaking with its previous mold.
“I said ‘If you’d ever like to sell, let me know,’ because we moved up here from Detroit about 5.5 years ago and have always visited this area and loved all the outdoor activities,” Reynolds said. “We got into a lot of the water sports and kind of live off the river so we (had bought) a lot of kayaks and said ‘we should do this some day.’”
Manistee Adventures is branching out from only offering canoe, kayak and tubing river trips on the Big and Little Manistee rivers in Manistee County. Dan Reynolds, Manistee Adventures co-owner, said the business now has a much broader offering that features the core paddlesports it was founded on, but also backpacking, cycling, outfitting, rentals and delivery services. Additionally, Manistee Adventures is also opening two other business locations outside of the 231 W. Parkdale Ave. building in Manistee. “(This is) partly because the (M-55) bridge is shut down (and it’s) really going to affect us with people getting to our site,” Reynolds said adding that many of Manistee
A single canoe is going down the Little Manistee River after starting at Six Mile Road with the help of Manistee Adventures. (Courtesy photo/Dan Reynolds) Adventures’ patrons are driving in from the Irons or Wellston directions and then face the M-55 detour. The M-55 bridge detour (near the intersection with U.S. 31) is expected to be in place through November 2021.
people can go directly there and then (also) in our location in town, we can drive them back,” he said. “(We’re) just trying to make the whole traffic thing better so people aren’t spending their whole experience driving.”
“We’re opening a spot toward Wellston and a spot … on the other side (of Manistee Township) so
Reynolds also emphasized that the business plans to have more services than it did last year.
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“The passion for the outdoors (drove us here), we always visited this area for backpacking, canoeing, kayaking, lake stuff — just all of it and (we) had an opportunity to get into the business ourselves and try to offer some of those same services that we look for when we travel,” he said. Then, right after the family bought Manistee Adventures, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. “But it ended up still being OK, we made it through the first year and had a good year,” he said.
