I've been doing some research on water filters for camping. Right now I've got a UV light stick, but I want to get a filter to be double sure. If you have any reviews of the follow products, post them! All of these products are as listed on REI.

MSR sweetwater

http://www.rei.com/product/617913/msr-sweetwater-water-filter#tab-specs

.2 microns/ 750 L/200 Gallons per filter

$89.99/ replacement filters about $40

Katadyn

http://www.rei.com/product/830746/katadyn-hiker-water-filter

.2 micron (protozoa and bacteria)/1150L/303 Gallon per filter

$69.99/ replacement filters about $40

Coghan’ s 8800

http://www.rei.com/product/888147/coghlans-water-filter-2015-overstock

.2 micron/50 gallons per filter

$14.73 on sale/$13 for replacement filter

My starter kayak was hatchless. While I could access the back by reaching through the sides of the built in seat, it was a pain, and basically wasting the whole back boat interior. So, I installed a hatch!


The hatch was a christmas gift, but are affordable on the typical amazon/ebay. Screws weren't included, so I ran out to menards to get some flat ones. 

First, i took a sharpie and drew a circle around the inner hatch circle, giving me a line to cut out. Then I used a drill to cut an initial hole in the boat. It was a hole big enough for step 3, the tiny hacksaw i used to cut around the line. After sawing for about 20 minutes, I punched out a hatch shaped hole. From there, I gorilla glued and screwed in the new hatch. The glue is to form a water tight seal around the hatch. Since the hatch is located on a cargo depression of the boat, I wanted to made sure water wouldn't pool/pour in. Basically, the screws anchor the hatch in, and the glue seals it. Gorilla glue expands, so it would fill in all gaps as it dried.

From there, I just had to scrape off the excess glue (once it's done drying/expanding), and we are done!

Easy project, took no more than an hour of labor, plus dry time. 


Unfortunately, this was on my stolen kayak, but experience is worth something.

This weekend, I took a half day trip with my dad from South Elgin to Geneva. The Fox river was up from recent rain, and flowing at a decent 3 mph average. Our 7 mile trip started from John Duerr Forest Preserve, and ended in Old Mill park. We had to portage one dam, in St. Charles.

This 7 mile trip took about 3 hours, on the water. The portage in St. Charles spanned 4 blocks, and took about 30 minutes. It was a quicker trip than I had estimated, because of both the flow and tailwind.

The St. Charles portage would have been rough if it wasn't for my kayak wheels. The weight of the boat was a challenge, but we were able to make one trip, instead of multiple to grab gear. We took out on the west side of the river, walked it through downtown, then popped back in by some rocks by the 2nd bridge past.

My canoe still has some unresolved leaks from last year. As it was drip drying, I located two possible seeping cracks which I patched up when I got home. It was bad enough that we had to dump the boat out twice along our trip. Other than that, it was smooth sailing! I really enjoyed this part of the Fox river, even though it was more civilized than I usually prefer.

Some notes:

-Old Mill park in Geneva has 3 hour parking right by the river, You'll need to find further off parking for longer days.
-We ran into some boats from the St. Charles Kayak Club, including one competitive racing boat.
-There were a couple of speed boats out before the St. Charles dam. One didn't see us until they waked us. Let it serve as a reminder to take waves head on in a canoe, so you don't flip!

Some notes I forgot to mention on my last post on the Illinois River.

Write down your boat's ID number. I didn't. I should have, for the police report. While I had an installed hatch on it to make it unique (should I run into the turd who snagged it), it's not really good enough for the police report.

The lack of a current on the Illinois river, well... sucks. For upstream, it is nicer than usual, as you can imagine, but if you are trying to start and once place and get to the other, it's all on your strength. If there is any kind of head wind, it just becomes that much harder.

My bucket worked pretty good. It kept things dry and made for a nice seat. It also made for a little wind sail the next morning. 

Paddling in freezing rain is awful. Looking back, we almost should have taken a break and huddled under a tarp. While my jacket was waterproof and I had a tarp as a spray skirt, my boat still got a ton of water inside, and my hands froze badly. 

Watch out for ferries on the river. They are quiet, and can sneak up on you!

I apologize that it's taken me a while to post a trip report on the Illinois river. Unfortunately it was a hard trip, marred by a thief and hard weather. 

My blue Kayak was swiped from Stratton State park in the one hour we were setting up cars. I set it off under the bridge behind some rocks... but probably should have hidden it completely. I figured leaving my business card on it might help, but I was obviously wrong. I reported it to both Kayak Morris and the local police (both of whom were surprised that someone would do it, so hopefully it's rare for the area). So be warned, a public park is not a safe place to drop a boat for an hour unattended. It's a shame that people like that exist, but it is a part of the world we live in. 

My friend Steve fortunately did not leave his boat behind, as we met in Marseilles and drove back. His kayak was brand new, so I['m actually thankful our mid morning audible saved his boat. We would continue the trip after I purchased a replacement on the fly from Menards. It's a 10.5 footer, with a built in hatch. It is a big step up from what I had. Honestly, I w as going to replace the old kayak someday, I just wish i got more than one winter's use out of it.  It was a $170 mistake, and I'll never make it again.

After that whole debacle, time was short, so we went upstream from Seneca. Since the Illinois river has almost no flow, it wasn't a hard paddle. We stopped short of the 3 mile paddle to Johnson Island, and instead found a decent beach space to camp at. No traffic noise was nice. The weather held up overnight, although the temp did dip into the upper 20s. That froze all of our packed liquids.

The next morning, we rolled out about 9:30. The rain started at 9:45. The freezing sleet rain started at 10. We hustled back to Seneca, and took a break. With the west to east wind, we were struggling. When we hit Seneca, it was about 11. We made the calculation of 7 miles to go, about 1.5 miles per hour means 4-5 more hours on the water, in the freezing rain. We wimped out and called it a trip. Which I am okay with, because paddling at full strength for 4 plus hours in freezing temperatures and hard rain is hypothermia waiting to happen. Especially when the river path would dictate that it would be Marseilles or bust. 

Overall, it was the worst trip I've been on, between the robbery and the weather cutting it short. What I learned:
-Don't leave  a boat by itself for longer than say 15 minutes in a high traffic area. 
-Pack waterproof gloves for colder paddling temperatures.
-Seneca's boat launch has NO overnight parking. Fortunately Steve wasn't ticketed or towed.
-The Illinois river has basically no downstream flow. A headwind on that river is a killer.
-Marsielles's middle eastern conflict wall is a decent take out parking location. You have to go around the rapids from the dam, and have to portage over Bell Island to get to it though. It's not awful, but also not a great option. High walls on the Illini stat park side makes exit challenging on the other side. 

While it was a tough trip, we did have some fun camping overnight, and I learned some lessons, so it wasn't all for nothing.