Paddling the Shallows

We braved the 95 degree weather and made it out on the Fox River. We dropped in at Voyager's Landing under 90 and headed North.

This was one of the first sections of the Fox that I paddled last year. It was cool to see how far I have come since then. Last year, I paddled to West Dundee and that was a LONG paddle for me. This year, we paddled strong past West Dundee and hit the old bridge at the factory in Carpentersville.

L.L. Bean has starts their kayak rental trips from Voyagers Landing and there was a group headed out as we hit the water. We fell in behind them, then quickly moved through the group. They have some nice yaks in that line up!

Right away we saw some Hawks. There were 3 of them and one was very close. It was flying from tree to tree so we really got to see him in detail.

We entered the quicker moving section of the river and made good time into West Dundee. The water is quick and shallow through here. I was working the paddle more as a pole than I was paddling. Between the rt 73 bridge and the Main street bridge, there is a lot of birds and jumping fish. A few fish hit the side of the boat and really gave us a good scare. You could also walk across the river in this area.

The current got really low and quick once we got to the old factory bridge. We tried one side of the island, but got spun around and we ducked back down around the other side to give it another go. We didn't get any further that way either. There is a dam not too much further than this bridge, so we decided to let the current win and we surrendered.

Part of my bribery today was that we had to visit a playground on the trip. This also played a factor in why we paddled this section. Just south of West Dundee is South Park. There is a nice playground, shade, and bathrooms at this park. It is easy to paddle to and there is a ramp at one end and large stone steps at the other. The water was very low so we beached it under a tall tree. I didn't realize how deep the mud was until I was ankle deep in it.

We spent a lot of time on the water today. We stayed cool on a super hot day and it was well worth getting out there. It is great to forget about time and just paddle till you can't paddle any more.