Michigan doesn’t require registration, but to use a public DNR launch (or any state park) you need a recreation passport vehicle permit, $13/year.
As far as “improved” launches go, they completely miss the boat (sorry) with sand beaches between retaining walls 10 feet apart and, on a river at a local metropark, this primo example of salesmen making a quick buck off ADA compliance:
Those ADA ramps are all about spending public money and having something that looks good (when it is brand new - without any maintenance worker or $$$ support consideration). These projects are not about practicality for use by the general public.
What the heck is that thing supposed to be for?? For helping dachshunds climb into canoes? Abstract sculpture??
I was visiting my cousin in Buchanan, MI, last year and she wanted to do a short kayak paddle on the PawPaw. The launch park she directed me to had one of those complicated aluminum floating “assisted launch” ramp contraptions with limited other entry options in the tight site with brushy overgrown steep banks and boulder piles on either side. I did not want to drag my gel-coated composite kayak down that thing so I launched her (in a borrowed plastic rec boat) down the ramp and then slid mine down a sliver of mud bank just upstream of the funky dock.
It was a bad outing overall because heavy rain in previous days had created strong pushy current and the narrow winding river (we’d call it a “creek” in Pennsylvania) was choked with snags and debris. We had not gone half a mile downstream when I realized we were in serious danger of getting swept into the tangles and pinned and aborted the trip. We then had a hell of a time fighting the current upstream to get back to that accursed ramp. I helped her nose her boat onto the chute but then was unable to maneuver my boat past the dock against the strong flow. Had to grab one of the railings on it to reluctantly steer my kayak onto the ramp chute. Managed to propel it partway up the rollers and then climbed out, but before I could pull it the rest of the way, the current caught the stern of the 16’ boat and started to drag it diagonally out of the chute, which caused protruding hardware on the badly designed roller assembly to gouge long deep scratches into the side of the hull!
I’d cry with happiness if I found a sandy launch site around here, even a narrow one. We have slimy clay mud banks with large embedded rocks along most shorelines (as well as busted concrete and rebar), and the few “developed” launch sites are nightmares designed by people who could not possibly have ever owned a canoe or kayak. One of the first the city set up as a “dedicated paddlers’ launch” along one of the most popular major rivers (to divert us from “offending” the power boaters at the main park trailer launch ramp) was a graded platform made of 8" square very rough ashlar stone blocks loosely laid with 4" gaps between them, just enough to wedge your shoe and remove it or twist your ankle while scraping the hell out of your hull. This horrible installation was at the base of a steep narrow unpaved path flanked by knotweed and poison ivy, and the stone blocks extended well out into the water so if you tried to walk your boat out far enough to mount it while it was floating to protect the hull, you risked foot entrapment or a sprained ankle.
Within a couple of months after that abomination was opened, no paddlers used it – we all went back to launching at the concrete power boat ramp conveniently right at the parking lot. I noticed when I last paddled past it 2 weeks ago that after several years of abandonment, the weeds have claimed the path and the treacherously ragged ramp stones have accumulated quite a pile of large flotsam and jetsam including a grocery cart and car parts. Good riddance, but our tax dollars went for that…
I must really be ignorant, I’ve never heard of any of this stuff. We pull up, lift the boat off and throw it in the water. California, Hawaii, Washington, here, Vancouver Island, Victoria
Even a year in Newport, RI.
I’ve never been cited for anything, anywhere. Really this is an eye opening thread. I think I prefer to stay ignorant because it kind of takes the fun out of it.
The funny thing is I was around the Coast Guard most days for nine years in Hawaii and I never heard anything about life jackets. Yes they would occasionally check commercial boats full of tourists, as they should, but we went inter-island all kinds of ways and it’s sort of like Europe, very relaxed.
So if they are unhappy about, I never noticed.
Maybe because of surf culture, I don’t know, but if you were to try and tell native Hawaiians what to do I don’t think it would work out because their culture has been canoeing and fishing these islands for generations and they don’t have the same practices as the NE.
Safety practices are very regional from what I have seen.
The combination of cold water and people who really cannot manage the basic life saving swimming/floating - but still go out in heavier clothing to fish or do something similar - is likely more of an issue in the northeast than in Hawaii. Lot of lives would have not been lost if someone who thought they could not capsize their canoe had a PFD on to make it 25 feet to shore.
Ohio also requires that hand powered craft be registered. It’s $20 for three years, and I don’t mind as there are a lot of nice state-managed lakes, and being registered gives me the same right to be there as any other boat.
For $5 more, Ohio also offers an “alternate” sticker that doesn’t require the big numbers on the side of the bow. The sticker can be on deck, or they also show it inside on a canoe just below the gunwale. I stretch the rules by putting the sticker inside my kayak cockpit where it’s out of sight.
We had a Hawaiian waterman on the local U of Nevada football team. Very strong and competent in the water. He took a paddle board out on Lake Tahoe and never came back.
I think it’s good to understand the rationale behind rules that you think you may not agree with at face value.
At our local pool I would not allow kids to hold their breath during some “mob” activities where the pool is overloaded with wild kids and the adults that are supposed to help the lone lifeguard check out and play with their phones so they can enjoy a break while the lifeguard does the babysitting. It wasn’t a written rule but a written rule (on the wall in the pool) can be very helpful to the lifeguard…and the lifeguard can always grant exceptions. But we allowed underwater swimming during lap swims even though it forces the guard to give the underwater swimmer much more attention than other swimmers (because it’s damn difficult to see if underwater swimmers are OK). We even allowed scuba divers but not during busy times.
Most pools have a rule of “only one person on the diving board” which I think is primarily aimed at kids. But in a guarded pool the lifeguard has the final call and I was happy to let a father get on the diving board with his 3 year old so he could keep her safe.
If you’ve never guarded a pool during a birthday party , or swim team, or grade school outing, or with a special needs group you might not appreciate the need for rules that seem stupid in a nearly-empty pool with grown-ups that know how to swim…like “no running” when grown-ups never run anyway.
I bet there are a lot of cases where folks could get their way if they just ask permission to violate a rule that was never intended to apply to their situation.
I thought this one was kinda funny. I tried a new put-in and found the only parking spot was reserved for handicapped people. Fine, I’m all for handicap access and I found a different place to park.
But the actual put-in is unusable for handicapped people! The path to the put-in is rough, there’s nowhere to set a boat down, there’s nowhere you can set the boat in the water and have it float without being on rocks, and there’s no level spot on shore from which you could safely step or crawl in to a boat. My boat absorbed some damage using this put-in.
Fortunately, if you do injure yourself at the put-in, you’ll have a good parking spot next time. 
That looks like 90% of the “launch sites” in Western and Northern Pennsylvania. The DNR seems to think that bridges and drainage overpasses are desirable locations to put in.
I do understand but I don’t see the point of being in a pool if you can’t go underwater, that sounds more like a group bath 
I was a lifeguard once but we didn’t have all these rules. Our job was: no running or I’d blow a whistle and no fighting and holding people under. That was it. If you were warned more than twice you got kicked out.
Common sense shall not get in the way of bureaucratic rules and the lawyers that suggest those rules.
I can only remember three rules. No running. One at a time in the diving board. And the one listed first…the lifeguard is in charge. 
Well, for my tastes, that looks like a great put-in. Far better than some of the spots in Canada that I’ve enjoyed. Very similar to low water on the Red Cedar around here. Of course I’d probably have the Rendezvous for that run & it’s hard to hurt Tuffweave.
I am not a fan of the ADA launches for my canoes (or kayaks) but they do serve a purpose depending on where they are. There are some around here that have the potential to be death traps for the unwary.
We ran into the same kind of thing when dry suits first came into use. I live and paddle on Lake Superior and nobody that was local had a dry suit. We use to laugh when people started showing up wearing one. We knew that they were not local and had probable never been on Lake Superior before. Figured that they thought that we were in the Arctic.
Now they are common and many locals own and use them. Times do change…some.
Those kayak ramps with rollers can cause severe damage to composite hulls with the weight of a paddler in it. One of our Club members suffered $750 of damage to an almost new Kevlar kayak that suffered multiple cracks in the gelcoat.
The newer models use a smooth Teflon type slide.
The roller ramps are best used by boats with plastic rotomolded hulls.
Many ADA kayak ramps are not designed for longer boats as well or ones with sharp V-shaped hulls.
I often thought of getting a better boat, but when I look at my rotomolded hull, I can’t think of how all the damage got there . . . but it keeps on going.
Haha same! If I get a composite boat I’m definitely buying used (pre-scratched!).
Be glad if you have put-ins.
There are few large rivers in the West like the Sacramento and the Willamette that have some boat ramps and parking lots for fishermen.
Most rivers have no such facilities and few rules. That means that finding a place to park can be a challenge. Finding access to a river can be difficult. Sometimes we just carry everything. Last trip on the Klamath River we found an old brushed in boat ramp. It was too steep for vehicles, so we just used a long rope and dragged the boats to a place where we could load them.
