Sanctuary In The "No Wake"

I dropped into the Chain-O-Lakes this week for a little sunset paddle. The boat traffic is starting to wind down out on the lakes, but there are still a lot of boats out there. I went out on Tuesday and it was very nice. The weather was great and the boat traffic was fairly light. I stuck to the shoreline, staying inside the 'no wake' areas for protection. Doing so doesn't protect you from the waves, but it does keep the boat traffic at your speed......slow.

I headed out of Lighthouse Marina and paddled North. I passed under the famous "Beer Can Bridge" and watched a new bottle get put in place by the boater in front of me.

I stuck to the East shoreline of Nippersink Lake and made the bend around the point to Fox Lake. The area around Pistakee Lake and Nippersink Lake is all no wake and then once you get about half way up the shore to the North, another no wake area starts and continues around the bend to Fox Lake. Once I got around the corner to Fox Lake, the water changed. It had been nice and calm (other than boat wakes) but once I got around the corner I was fighting a strong breeze and some waves.

I paddled into Mineola Bay and fought the waves, wakes, and breeze for the mile on Fox Lake. The old Mineola Hotel is pretty cool to see from the water so if your in the area, stop by and check it out. There is also a bar there if you are into that.

I paddled back around the point and passed through Nippersink again. This time I passed under the rt 12 bridge to the west of Beer Can Bridge. I was in the mix of some larger boats, but I was in the no wake zone so I was able to carry my own. I came around the back side of the island right there and paddled out to some open water. The area just south of that island is only about 2-3 feet deep but is muddy as heck. There are a few power boaters that cut through that area so be careful. I saw 2 boats pass through as I was sitting there. I cut across to the East side of the lake (another no wake area) and paddled down to the southern point. That is where I hung out in some flat water and watched the sun drop. It was a perfect evening to watch the sunset on the water.

Between 2 Dams

I made my way down to Elgin, Illinois this weekend. There is a section of the Fox river that passes through Downtown Elgin and continues South into South Elgin. The stretch is only about 6 miles between the dams, but there is a lot to see and it is a transition area from city to residential. You get a taste of both worlds.

I dropped in off rt 31 just south of 20. There is a State Police complex and Elgin Shores County Forest Preserve is right next to it. You drop in on the West side of the river. There is plenty of parking and a concrete launch. I found it easier to just portage from the lot rather than unload at the ramp.

From the launch, it is about a 1.5 mile paddle to the northern dam in Elgin. Right off the bat you pass under rt 20 and 2 railroad bridges. They make a pretty cool crisscross over the river. The bridges are all covered in graffiti too, so you know your coming into a 'down town' area. As you come under the next bridge, you see the metra station on your left and the massive Grand Victoria riverboat casino. It isn't until you are right next to it until you realize how huge this thing is. There is a life boat that is about 12 feet long and it is lost on the lower deck of this floating building.

Once you pass the riverboat, you come under one more bridge and you see the Pace Bus Terminal on your left and a beautiful island park straight ahead. The bus terminal hangs over the river a little and is an interesting building from the water. The island park has a paver lock shore, so if you would like to get out and rest, it would be pretty easy to do so. The park is 2 small islands just south of the dam. I paddled up the West side of the park and hugged the north shore of it near the dam. The current was swift, but not hard to paddle in. And it was plenty deep where as you were not hitting bottom with a normal stroke. I came around the north side of the island and then coasted back down the East side. It was a nice place to take a break and just let the current take you back to the river boat.

Once past the launch again, it is another 1.5 miles to the south dam. This stretch is all river homes and undeveloped shoreline. The water was a mirror all the way to the dam. It was perfect. The dam is marked with buoys, but it is hard to see the actual dam (you are at the top side of the dam). Pay attention and you should not be able to miss the signage.

Coming back north I found a creek on the East side of the river. It is just south of the forest preserve. The mouth of the creek was very shallow, but passable. I would suggest trying it out. It was pretty neat once you got into the creek. Once past the shallow section, it got plenty deep again. The creek winds under a few bridges, and then back into the Welch Bros Concrete property. It got a little eerie back in there. There were some old machinery covered in forest along the shoreline and some things poking into the water. It was like a universal studios movie set back there. I got to a walking bridge and had to turn around due to the current. It was well worth the paddle though. Very interesting little area.

The variety of bridges you pass under on the creek is what made the trip. There was everything from a towering train bridge to an old stone arch. It was pretty cool to see.

This is a great little section to paddle for a few hours. It is about 6 miles of easy paddling and there is a variety of things to see. Like many areas on the edge of a populated city, there is a lot of random trash. I counted 3 shopping carts laying in the shallow water and one TV. The interesting thing about this section is that you can see the transition from city to nature. A Blue Heron sitting on a half submerged shopping cart is oddly beautiful. It is like nature is saying, "Whatever you throw at me, I can handle."

Here is a link to more pics from this trip and other trips on the Fox River.

Product Review: Olympus X-560WP

I have had 2 of Olymus' water proof cameras before purchasing the X-560. Both of my previous Olympus cameras were the $200 models. I purchased the X-560 as my 'fun' camera. Just something to have handy while paddling, with the kids, and just to have handy. I have seen them online for about $65-$70. I purchased mine at Wal-Mart for $49.

This camera runs on a rechargeable lithium battery and takes a XD card or the Mini SD with the converter. The camera comes with the battery charger, wrist strap, battery, card converter, software, usb cable, and RCA cables.

Now the most appealing part of this camera is the price. If you compare this camera to the more expensive versions, you will quickly see where they trimmed the costs. The back of the camera is plastic where as most of the other waterproof Olympus cameras are all metal or thicker plastic. This one is not crush proof because of it.

The screen on the camera is not the best quality. While the camera takes 10mp photos, the screen does not have that quality. You can play back pictures and see what you are pointing it at, so the screen does it's job in that regards.

This camera also takes video. The video option is not the best. It records as an .avi file. There are no speakers on the camera, so when you play back the video on the camera its' self, you will not be able to hear the sound. This is a little troublesome.

Here is a sample of the video this camera produces.

All in all, I feel that this camera is worth the price. It is waterproof up to 10ft, has 3x optical zoom, different photo settings, and the basic features of other cameras. When set to the 10mp mode, the pictures come out great. You would never know that it came from a "cheap" camera.

If your looking for an affordable, durable camera... I think this one will work for you.

Here is a post with some pictures from the X-560wp

Plan B

Well, I had all the time in the world today...so I planned a trip down the Nippersink. The morning was all on schedule. We had one turn to go before we got to the launch, then I would take the 15 mile trip down the creek and meet back up with my ride later in the day. We came around the last bend to find that the bridge was out at the creek. The launch was just around the bend over the bridge. The only way to get to the other side was to go down around the south side of Wonder Lake and come around the other side of the lake. So that's where we went.

My excitement got the best of me. We were all spun around trying to make our way through neighborhoods and we came to Nippersink Creek. I didn't know where on the creek I was, but I got in and sent my ride on his way. The creek was moving pretty good and I was stoked to be on my way to a great trip. Then the creek opened up a little and I saw some pontoon boats docked behind some houses on my right..... That's when I realized I was on the wrong side of the dam. Nippersink comes from the West INTO Wonder Lake then continues North. At the north end of Wonder Lake is a dam.

I didn't loose hope. I paddled into Wonder Lake and headed North to the dam. It was a hot weekend day, so the Lake was pretty busy with jetskis and power boats. I kept my distance and kept cutting the wakes till I got to the dam.

The dam is county property and was fenced with "No Trespassing" signs all over. I jumped out for a second and looked down the hill to see more fences... it was over.

LUCKILY, Wonder Lake is HUGE and I had never been there before. Plan B was now in effect and I was going to be on the lake for the day, so I made the best of it.

Right in the middle of the lake, there were a few sailboats running a course. I was right next to them as they came around. It was pretty cool. The far south side of the lake dropped to about a foot deep. There were no homes, no boats, and no waves in this section. It was so peaceful and a nice break from the 2 hour paddle around the busy lake. There were also fish getting riled up as I passed through. All you could see was the black mud get turned up as they swam away.

I gave my ride a call after I found a place to sneak off the lake. I had about an hour left in making it all the way around the lake at that point. I crossed over a few pretty big wakes and the old canoe took them pretty well.

Although the original plan fell through, the back up turned out to be quite enjoyable. I sent about 3 hours making my way through the chop and around the lake. There were a lot of fishing flying out of the water and I saw my friend Blue Heron again. I don't think I would have made it out onto Wonder Lake (I think you need to have a city permit) if I didn't accidentally get stuck out there today. I am glad that it all worked out. After talking to some folks and looking at Google Maps, it looks like you can portage around the dam. Down the hill past the "No Trespassing" signs and across county property. You can get onto the Nipper from Wonder Lake, but just use Keystone Landing and life will be much easier.

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.

Border Crossing

I continued my journey up the Fox River this morning. I started where I left off on the Heron Run portion. I dropped in at rt 173 at the State Park then headed north. It was nice and overcast, so the sun wasn't blaring down on me yet.

The section of the Fox from 173 to the state line is a nice mix of homes and nature. There were a lot of fallen trees that added to the beauty of the shoreline. I saw some Herons, but nothing like the section of river to the south.

In mile 2, I crossed into Wisconsin. If it wasn't for the sign, I would not have known that I made the cross over. Nothing changed much on the shore or in the river. This area of the Fox was very slow moving so heading into the current was never an issue. The only time you realized there was a current is when you stopped for a second and your boat would start to slowly spin.

There was a lot to look at as I got further into Wisconsin. I came across a few massive trees that had fallen into the river, making a very cool sculpture of limbs. There was also a section that I came to that had very high banks that separated the river from a corn field. I could smell the corn when I got around the bend there. It was pretty interesting.

I also came across a very shallow lily pond on the East side of the river. I paddled in a few hundred feet and saw some very nice lily flowers. I also came across some fish hiding in the mud. They kicked up some murky water as I came close to them.

I spun my trip around as I came to the Wilmont Raceway on the West side of the river. It was starting to drizzle also at this point. It wasn't enough to scare me back, but it was time to head back down with the current. As I was turning around, I came across a snapping turtle that was floating in the water. He was huge so I kept my distance.

This area was a pleasure to paddle. It was very quite and peaceful. There was one portion that I coasted through and didn't even hear the birds for a few seconds. It doesn't get any more quite than that!

Heron Run

This week I made it out to the Fox River in the Chain-O-Lakes State Park. This was one of the first places I paddled the Fox last season. It was not the most interesting section for me last season, but it was different this time.

I dropped in at the boat launch in the State Park and headed north. This section is all cattails and calm water. The river still has a nice flow to it, but nothing like the tight sections down river. Around each bend was more cattails... until I started to pay attention to the Herons. I first noticed 2 white herons together on the first bend. Then there was a Blue Heron on the next stretch. Then I came across a red faced Heron type bird. I do not know what it was and I have had some trouble finding it online.

Now, the Heron has become my paddling mascot because we see one almost every time we go out. On a good paddle, we see about 1-4 of them. On this paddle, I was 3 turns in and I had already seen 10. I was following a flock of 3 of them, but I only counted them once. There is always something that stands out on a trip and I quickly realized that this was going to be the 'Heron Run'.

I saw quite a few of these brown birds with red faces. They were a lot less skittish than the White and Blue Herons. They had a very prehistoric look to them, which gave the hole section a little different feel. I felt that I was going to come around a bend and see a brontosaurus bathing in the river.

It was all cattails until I got to the north end of the park and came up to the 173 bridge. The river looked like it got more wooded and interesting at that point. I was fighting the light, so I turned around at the bridge. I think I may launch in this section next time and head to Wisconsin.

So how many Herons did I see on this trip? 30. That is no lie or exaggeration. I was just as surprised while I was counting them. I didn't count any on the way back either!