This is not awful at all! Nine out of 14 exposures 90 seconds, ISO 800, f/5.6 with the Takumar 200mm lens on the canon t3i. The spiral of the pinwheel nebula is faint but clear. and you can see the faint fuzzy of NGC 5474 below and to the right. In fact, aided by Astrometry.net and the eye of faith I can see at least NGC 5473 below M101 and left, NGC 5485 still lower and left and NGC 5422 above and left of M101.
I used DeepSky Stacker per this tutorial which is clear and specific. I had taken more images earlier in the month and stacked them then with less success.
Astrophotography Newbie 