Trip Report: Illinois River by Morris

My dad and I did an overnight trip along the Illinois river 2 weeks ago. We started out at Stratton St. Park, and headed upstream toward Heidike lake. About 4 miles upstream, we found a decent shaded campsite on the north shore. While it was very much dried mud, there was a decent carpet of leaves to keep us from getting too dirty.

The 4 miles upstream was not terribly hard. While we were fighting a 1 mph current, the occasional gust of wind would also slow us down. A small challenge, but nothing terribly difficult. We went 4 miles in about 3 hours, not paddling hard. Downstream the next day was pretty simple. We went a lot slower to fish, but did the same 4 miles in about 3 hours again.

I know I've ripped the IL river for being speedboat heavy before. This was no exception. Saturday afternoon was no problem. Coming back Sunday, we had over 20 speedboat passes. Most of which were fairly uneventful. The larger boats slowed down, while the smaller boats didn't create enough wake in the wide river to cause much issue. While it was a concern, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I think the new canoe helped with that a lot though.

Overall, this trip was pretty solid. It was a lot easier to find a campsite (or campsites) on the illinois than my previous trips on the Fox and Dupage. I'm not sure why the IL doesn't have the steep banks that the fox and Dupage do. Also not sure why the IL isn't as heavily forested and overgrown like the others too.

While 15 miles a day on the Illinois would be much more challenging since there is no flow, the abundance of campsites almost make up for that.