I got to check a river off my bucket list: The pecatonica river. I did a 53 mile stretch from downtown freeport to Two River Forest Preserve, which is right before the pec merges with the Sugar River. It was a brutal river to paddle. The pec doesn't really have much portaging, but there is no current on it, and it's extremely muddy. Tons of mosquitoes this time of year too. Plenty of trees means ample shade, but the majority of the shore is overgrown.
18 miles on day 1 took us from freeport to 10 miles outside of the town of Pecatonica. We would find a rough campsite around the 18 mile marker up a mud hill. There was plenty of camping before mile marker 14, but from 15-20, not much of anything. We made it work though.
The problem was around mile marker 21, there is a tight curve with a logjam that forced us to portage through a farmers field on river right. There's a mud pile to get through of knee deep slop, then you go through a field, then slide down a ramp back into the river. A swarm of mosquitoes ate us while we portaged.
We continued on through downtown pecatonica. There's a sudo dam there, but if you stick to river right there's an easy channel to pass through so you don't have to portage. We'd continue on to the Pecatonica river forest preserve area where we found a shoreline to camp on.
The problem was around mile marker 21, there is a tight curve with a logjam that forced us to portage through a farmers field on river right. There's a mud pile to get through of knee deep slop, then you go through a field, then slide down a ramp back into the river. A swarm of mosquitoes ate us while we portaged.
We continued on through downtown pecatonica. There's a sudo dam there, but if you stick to river right there's an easy channel to pass through so you don't have to portage. We'd continue on to the Pecatonica river forest preserve area where we found a shoreline to camp on.
The first half of the trip was riddle with mud, heat and bugs. The second half was much better. There were more shorelines for camping. The current never quite picked up, but there were less obstacles to maneuver around.
53 miles took us 3 longer days of 6-8 hours of hard paddling per day. We slacked off a little, but they were longer days. The heat bugs and mud made this a tough river. Tough to paddle, tough to camp on. Maybe it's different in fall/spring, but I do not advise doing it in the summer.
53 miles took us 3 longer days of 6-8 hours of hard paddling per day. We slacked off a little, but they were longer days. The heat bugs and mud made this a tough river. Tough to paddle, tough to camp on. Maybe it's different in fall/spring, but I do not advise doing it in the summer.
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