Thursday, September 23, 2004 -- motoring down the Illinois River We are aboard Reverie docked at the Alton Marina in Alton, Illinois. The trip down the Illinois River was a great two weeks! We had nearly perfect weather with light rain only two times and a little fog one morning for an hour or two. We tied to a dock over night at six locations and we anchored out seven nights. Our GPS showed 343 miles while the boat log saw 314 miles so the river current carried us for 29 miles during the trip. The river was down and not running very rapidly as we came south. There were eight locks, averaging a 20-30 foot drop, and we only had a significant wait at one of them. We've been waiting since June and have finally found summer weather here in Illinois with most days getting into the 80's. We left the marina in Hammond, Indiana before noon on Sunday, September 5 in beautiful sunny weather. Jim turned off the engine for a few minutes in Calumet Harbor so we could take a final dip in the beautiful clear waters of the Great Lakes! Then it was time to begin the 333.5 mile trip down the Illinois Waterway System by entering the Calumet River. We had made a reservation at a marina just nine miles down the river and below the first lock so we could get an easy start and be ready for an early start the next day. Going from Chicago to Joliet has an especially bad reputation for being congested with tow boats and barges and no place for pleasure boats to tie up. Having that short first day worked like a charm, and we awoke to a beautiful Labor Day and found the trip through the southern part of Chicago to be quite pleasant. We encountered barge traffic that caused us to have to wait for only about one half hour. The sky was beginning to look like it might rain, and it did, just as we were approaching the lock. By the time we had tied up to the lock wall, it quit raining. We were the first boat to arrive and tie up to the wall of the Bicentennial Park in Joliet that day. Later another boat came in and tied up and we enjoyed the first of many "Happy Hours" with other boaters out here doing the Great Loop, also. Being in the heart of Joliet gave us the opportunity to see tows and their barges "up close and personal". For those readers who know nothing of barges, here is what we learned: a single barge measures 35 feet wide and 195 feet long. One tow boat with a large load will be pushing 15 of these barges -- three across and five long! The Bicentennial Park wall in Joliet is described as being "over 300 yards long" and there is a draw bridge at each end. So you can see that when one of these largest tows is passing, both bridges are open and the barges are stretching the entire length between them -- and the pleasure boaters are sitting on the side holding their collective breaths!! Because there is a slight outward bend in the river right there, we learned that pleasure boats should be away from the middle of the wall and tucked back at each end next to the bridge pillars. Luckily we were. And, guess what, barge traffic moves day and night -- all night long! Continuing on, we stayed at Hidden Cove Marina in Seneca; briefly visited the neat little town of Ottawa for a Library-Internet/Ice Cream stop; anchored at Buffalo Rock State Park (mile 234.9) and anchored at Lower Henry Island (mile 193.3) before making a two-night stop at a marina in Peoria which is about the half-way mark. Here we met several other "Loopers" both leaving and just arriving. With laundry done and groceries bought, we headed on south on Sunday morning, September 12. We anchored below Duck Island (mile 135.5), in Lower Bath Chute (mile 106.9) and then tied to the Logsdon Barge Company barge/dock in Beardstown for an overnight. We had arranged to have our mail sent General Delivery to the Post Office there and it was waiting for us as expected and only three blocks from where we tied up. This was a really interesting experience actually walking on a barge to get to the stairs which we had to climb to get up out of the river and onto the street. There was only one other brave 'Looper' boat in there with us! Three more anchorages: McGee Creek (mile 66.6), Fisher Island (mile 38.0) and Island #525 at Illinois River mile 2.0 would take us nearly to the Mississippi and our final 16 miles into the Marina here at Alton just before noon on Saturday, September 18.
		Next
				Home