This memorial day weekend, my wife and I attempted a 40 mile trip down the Kishwaukee and Rock rivers, from Belvidere to Oregon Illinois. It'd be a 3 day 2 night trip which I've done previously.

We fell short.

The Kishwaukee was moving, but not exceptionally fast. Water height was at 5 feet (2 more than average), and a KCFS around 2.4. It was right at action stage, 3 feet below flood. Unfortunately, after so much deadfall and so many floods from the last 2 years, it's nearly impassable at points. At that level, it basically became a whitewater course, trying to avoid trees.

After my wife flipped twice, and me getting caught in a  current and splashing over, we made the call to end it. We were behind schedule, and had gear beginning to get soaked. Baumann park is right at the edge of civilization, so it was a point of no return. By blackhawk park there were a few more sharp turns, and if that would be as bad as the first stretch, we would have been in trouble. 

So we played it safe. A bit unsatisfactory, but safety first. 

Today I completed my first race: the Des Plaines river canoe and kayak marathon. It is 18.5 miles from Oak Spring Road to Euclid road. I completed it in 3:45, just under 5 MPH. It was good enough for 24/94 for my men's rec 14 or less kayak division. 

The first 10-12 miles was fun: decent current and tons of eddies I could pick up to keep moving. I was paddling hard and scooting along, but never to the point where I burnt out. The river has lots of twists and runs through heavier forest, so it's scenic and fun.

Around mile marker 12/Lake Cook road, the river widens, and the current slows. This day, there was a major headwind, which really slowed me down. There are sections of the river that are wide open and have little coverage, so the wind can unimpededly blast you there. I was already starting to tire, and this wind really hurt.  I had to paddle harder than the first 12, but to go slower than before. Factor in some soreness and I burnt out quickly.

The last 6 miles or so took a lot longer than the first 2/3rd. My strength waned,  but eventually my arms went numb and I just pressed on with some divine support. I was thrilled to finish under 4 hours. The best paddlers and boats can do it in close to 2. It requires a thin cigarette style boat that can slide right through the water. The winners from my recreational kayak division made the run in about 3 hours.

I did grab video from the first 2 hours of the race. My gopro eventually ran out of battery, but this should be the first 10 miles or so. It formatted into 4 videos:

This weekend I got out and did a partially new portion of the river. I kayaked 35 miles down the eastern then main portions of the DuPage river. I started at Lion's Park, in winfield. Then ended at Hammel Woods in Plainfield/Shorewood area. We did 20 miles on day one, then 15 on day 2. We'd camp at an island Just before Hassert Road.

Early season river levels were up enough to push us along pretty fast. We scraped slightly in a few spots, but nothing bad. 35 is a lot for an early season overnight, but it was tolerable. 

Just north of Downtown Naperville, there is a fishing area/dam. It has doors that you can technically paddle through, even though you really shouldn't. I was able to pass through with a little bit of water intake, so I'm sharing it below!

At the beginning of the year, I set a personal goal of 500 miles. Through longer trips and mishaps, I found myself at 468 miles going into the last weekend of October, so I pulled off 32 miles on the Kishwaukee and Rock rivers to get to 500 exact. It was my second attempt at this exact trip, after the labor day disaster.

This trip begins at Hickory's Bills Island. You cannot park there overnight, so we stash a car at the nearby VFW. It ends at the downtown Byron boat launch. You can leave a car there overnight. The trip is 32 miles, no portaging

The first 6 miles of the Kish are the toughest. Lots of turns and deadfall. Plenty of islands too, so sometimes you need to choose your route carefully. I spilled about 3 miles in when I pinned a log, broke free and didn't see the next log coming. Fortunately it was right bya  shore so I could get the water out efficiently.  The current is super strong for the initial stretch.

From there, it evens out. The current slows and there are less obstacles. We would camp by the lithuanian park, as there's a good shoreline and plenty of islands to choose from.

The next day, We'd go under the rt 39 highway bridge (probably the most scenic bridge pass in the area) at mile marker 15. The river splits at 20-22. I thought left was the safer route, but it was blocked this time. Right has all kinds of turns, but eventually merges back at mile marker 22. Then it's 10 on the rock to the end. You go under a bridge, and the rock's current almost sweeps you away. It's a bit intimidating, but once you settle up it's not too bad.

The rock river has a few cliff walls and is generally scenic. The fall colors were popping this time. The current was going too. We finished the second half of the trip in about 6 hours (18 miles).

​And that's that. 500 miles for the year, GOAL REACHED

The leaves begin to change, fall is here. Montgomery to silver springs is a nice 20 mile paddle. 10 miles, portage in yorkville, then 10 more miles. Put in point is The Montgomery Dam (shortly thereafter). The Take out is Shuh Shuh canoe launch. The portage at yorkville is pretty easy, paved path around the whitewater course. You could go through the whitewater, but I've not chanced it. Yet.

The first half 10 miles is one of my favorite exercise routes. It's local and fun and scenic.
But the second half really has some spectacular sights. Wall to wall with trees, and only slight road noise, you get a wilderness feeling very quickly. There's only one road bridge the entire trip, right by silver springs state park. If I live closer, that would be my exercise route. 

Today is my Birthday. I decided to celebrate by putting in 19 miles on the dupage river: from naperville, through Plainfield, down to Shorewood. 0 portages on this trip, and it's all fairly scenic.

The put in is Doothea Weigand Riverfront Park in Naperville. It's a minor walk through some much to get to the actual river, but it works.
The take out is the Dam at Hammel Woods. You drive in via the route 59 access portion of the park, and drive through to the last loop, then can walk to the dam. The take out is maybe a 5 minute walk away from that.

This trip: water was at normal levels. It took me about 5 hours of paddling hard to get to the end. Good day.

Today I went on a 10 mile trip down the Dupage river: through the rapids section. Start point is Hammel Woods (just after the dam on the rt. 59 entrance). Take out point is the Channahon State Park dam. Both are easy to get to by car, but do require a 5-10 minute walk from lot to river.

The river was up this weekend. We had major rains over Labor day, and it was still pushing the river at a decent clip. I've usually done this stretch in low water levels, so higher levels was a first. It was fast, and a bit frightening. I was taking out 3 people who had never done this stretch before, so I would lead and survey the current while they tried to not duplicate my mistakes.

This stretch starts up 3 miles after the launch. There's a couple of smaller turns, then it flares right up.  When you get to the lake, there's 3 points of exit. Left side is currently blocked. 

I did get some killer video footage of it:

Over Labor day weekend, I attempted to do a 32 mile trip from Belvidere to Byron, IL. Start point is just past the last dam in Belivdere, off Appleton road, right by the VFW. It's called Hickory Bill's Island. The end point is the downtown Byron boat launch, just outside of town. You can park overnight at the boat launch in Byron, then I got permission from the VFW to leave a car for the overnight. 

There's a forest preserve and Lithuanian club around the 13-15 mile marker, which is an idea place to camp on the kish. You then get to the rock river at the 22 mile marker, then go 10 miles to Byron.  I had done this trip previously in 2016, but went further to Oregon.

This trip was with 3 other people. My experienced Dad in a kayak, and 2 rookies in a canoe. It was during a major flood, which was a huge mistake. We didn't realize there was rain up north, which fed the river to a gauge reading that was 6th highest in recorded history in a 24 hour timespan.

The first 6 miles are the toughest, with constant turns and obstacles. In the floodwaters, my kayak rookies tipped twice. Bags would spill out each time, and it took us about 2 hours to grab everything and reload. We also lost paddles on the second spill, so the canoe was compromised down to 1. The swirling waters would force you to shores, but with trees and fall on the shores, it was quite hazardous. The first 3 hours had the two falls, which put us behind for our goal. Fortunately, the 4mph + currents kept us somewhat on pace.

We'd camp at the Lithuanian club 14 mile marker. and set up right on shore for the night. After a good dinner, storms came in at 8pm, and it didn't cease until 7am the next day.

Because of this, the current went to an insane 6+ mph, and the water level went up several feet, up over the shoreline. We'd have to cut the trip off short. Between the canoe being down a paddle, flow, and incoming storm, we had to cut things off.

We sent the two rookies to go find and uber and pick up cars at the end point. Then we dragged all boats and gear along the flooded shoreline to the Forrest preserve. It was about 2 miles of portaging, and we had to drag boats and gear over several gates. We'd finish at 11am, right as another huge storm came in.

In the end, it was a disaster of a trip that we shouldn't have gone on, but we got out of it unscathed. I learned to check flow, because the initial river levels just told me height, not flow. I should've compared that to historical levels and checked flow, but I didn't.

But hey, we survived. Learn from my mistakes.

This river is passable, just not in flood conditions. 

This weekend I was able to paddle the big lake Michigan up by Sheboygan Wisconsin. I've got family in the area, and they have a lakefront house and a couple of kayaks. Over the weekend, I went north a few miles and south a few miles. 

The north trip was fun, Just up and back 2 miles. It was a mid afternoon trip on a hot day. The water could be a little choppy at points, but overall doable with breaks.

The south trip took me from the house to the edge of downtown. It was about 6 miles round trip. This was earlier in the morning. The water started calm then picked up later on. I can get seasick, but if I stayed out about 200 feet it wasn't awful. It would slam up against the rocks PLENTY though, so that made in and out a pain.

​Nice short trip, but first time in the area and it was solid.

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 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.