Trip Report: Dupage River Eastern Branch to End

This past Labor Day weekend, I took a trip for almost the entire length of the dupage river. I started on the eastern branch in Lisle, and made it all the way to the end in Channahon, where it joins the Des Plaines river. It was a 40 mile trip, and I ran it in 3 full days. It was awesome, but very challenging at points. The water level was at the typical low for the season, as I scraped up plenty. 

The first day, I covered about 15 miles from Lisle to Naperville. This includes the famous beaver dam stretch by whalon lake. Where the last time I port aged around them, this time I mapped out an alternate route that took me around the dams. There are a couple channels south of the main river that allow you to take an out of the way detour. As low as the water level was, it was still easier than portaging around in the heat. 

I would wind up camping around the merge. While I could have stayed at Knoch Knolls, I moved on by a half mile and found a nice short patch off the river. It was a little steep, but worked.

Day two, I went from the merge in naperville down to shorewood. It was a longer day of paddling in 95 degree heat. While the river had more flow than day 1, it also had more twists and turns, making for a seemingly longer day. Most of plainfield was a cinch to get through, but once you hit hammel woods, things slow down.

I originally tried finding a camping spot in Hammel, but between the steep banks, overgrown shores, and lack of clearings, there really was not much opportunity to camp. I wound up having to portage the dam, then hustle downstream to find a suitable spot at the end of the day. In the end I found a nice clearing south of some parks in shorewood, but it was more worry than I'd like.

Day 3 was Shorewood all the way to the end. 12 miles of easy to no paddling. I got up extra early, and was able to float a good chunk of the river. I'm not sure if the low level had anything to do with it, but once you get past route 80, it's very downhill, and there are a ton of rapids. This obviously ups the flow, and you can really let gravity take you downstream. Once you get to route 6, that flow slows drastically, but it's a nice change of pace.

Portaging around 2 dams was nothing terribly long. The issue with both sections is that you need to take your boat up and down a hill. The first one has a paved path. The second, a grueling staircase was awaiting. The first dam was a low one in shore wood. I probably could have made it over, but didn't risk it. The second is in channahon, about a mile before the end of the river. Besides the tall staircase, it was nothing too rough. 

Overall, 40 miles in 3 days. Days 1 and 2 were pretty hardcore, but day 3 was a bit easier with a higher river. While I battled a low river plenty of times, there weren't many other major obstacles to overcome. There might have been plenty of suburbs, but there was plenty of nature too. Good weekend.