After spending a week in Chicago, which we thoroughly enjoyed, it was time to make progress on completing our “Loop”. Going down the IL river through Chicago would have been very fun, however, a 19′ fixed bridge S of the Chicago River precluded us from taking that route. Our air draft (meaning how tall the boat is) is 18.5′ and that’s when we lower the mast of the radar. The alternate route is going 10 miles South of Chicago on Lake Michigan to the Calumet River and Sag Channel. So we left Chicago at 7 a.m. and fueled up at Hammond, IN where fuel prices were cheaper than the IL marinas, and started the completion of our Loop.
This leg of the trip requires that we travel 338 miles to where the IL River and the Mississippi River meet at Grafton, IL. This is the point where we actually jumped onto “the Loop” last September and will be considered the end of our Loop, where we will “cross our wake,” become “Gold Loopers” and fly the gold AGLCA burgee. There are 8 very busy locks on the IL river and some have been closed up until Sept. for maintenance, one other Lock has restrictions on the time of day pleasure craft are allowed to “lock thru”. This whole river will be a test of patience and we are just expecting long wait times due to heavy barge traffic taking priority and not being able to use the IL lock system til now.
Many of the Loopers will be experiencing locks for the first time and are quite nervous, no I would say more like scared spitless! They just don’t know what to expect and are worried about losing control of their vessel in the chamber, hitting the lock wall coming into the chamber, and not being able to hang on to a line as the water level and current rise. We are trying to reassure them it’s not that difficult but then again, we are the river people.
We traveled the IL River back in 2008 to bring Flying Colors I back from New Buffalo, MI although this turned out to be a different experience with many new memories for us because of the destinations and dockage we were able to find, much was like we remembered however, commercial and not very scenic.
For many miles, this is what traveling on the Cal-Sal offered in terms of the scenery, not much. Will only get better from here. The first day out we got deled 3 hours at 2 out of the 3 locks we needed to do to get to our destination of Joliet, IL After all that waiting, we were hot and tired as the temps were in the 90’s. Just hoping that there was room on the free city wall in Joliet for us to tie up for the night. Even if there’s not, we can always “raft up”, by tying up a boat that is tied to the wall. Coming into Joliet, IL for the night after a long 12-hour day on the river. There was a flight of bridges that had to be opened for us in order to get to the city dock. There are many bridges on the IL, and if we were at all uncertain if we would clear, we always requested an open.Our second day on the IL proved to be equally hot and exhausting as we waited for 3-hours at 2 out of the three locks. In fact, we were so exhausted, we aborted doing the third lock and revised our plan and docked at Spring Brook Marina in Seneca, IL instead of Ottawa. There were many Loopers on the river and in this lock we had to “raft up” together to lock through. We were the first boat on the wall and then two boats tied off to us. Lock-through went fine, no issues with rafting vessels. Rafted up again in the lock again due to the Lock not having enough working floating bollards. Unlike the locks on the Mississippi where they just throw you a line to hang onto the IL locks have all floating bollards. So Nancy stands midship wraps a line around a pole, so to speak, and the line and the boat just float up as the water rises. Arrived at Spring Brook and we were greeted by our friends from the boat Trouvaille, Dennis, and Karin, who we first met at Wrights Marina in Britt, ON Canada. We saw them at the Chicago Yacht Club and now here they were helping us tie up for the night and have dinner with us. They were worried about clearing the bridge on the Chicago River, opted for the Cal-Sag route, and hit a bridge that destroyed their bimini, so they were in Seneca having a new bimini made. There was a lot of commerce happening on the IL River with all these barges. The first time you pass one it’s a little scary cause you want to be sure to stay in the channel, not hit a buoy, and yet be far enough away from the barge so you don’t get hit the barge. When passing a barge you generally call the captain and ask them how they would like to pass, either on the port or starboard side or in barge captain talk, the one whistle or the two whistle.Interesting vines grew right over the trees. With storms in the forecast, we found a marina in Henry, IL that was a historic lock wall. This was the first lock and dam on the IL river. We stayed here 2 nights and it turned out there was quite a blow our second night here. This is the only marina for miles, otherwise, you have to try and anchor, and while there are some good anchorages on the river, we don’t enjoy anchoring in storms. There wasn’t much in the town of Henry, which used to be home to a couple of fertilizer companies that have now left town. Chicago is in negotiations with the town to use some of their land for the city’s garbage! The locals are in an uproar and I can’t say I blame them.Henry Harbor had amenities they had restrooms, see the orange port-a-potty, they had several of those and they also had electricity.Electricity at Henry Harbor,a little rustic but we were happy to have it. We got to know the owners who recently bought this marina, because it’s a historic lock wall they can’t do too much to change or improve it. Because of the rock, it was challenging for them to find a way to tie off the boats, cleats didn’t work, the screws of the cleats wouldn’t stay in the rock and so this was the type of “cleats” they could cement in and seemed to work well. Docktales at Henry Harbor with folks from the boats Spirit of 76, JEMA, Toboka, and Masquerade. Logsdon Tug service owns the barge at Beardstown, IL. You tie up for the night here, it’s right on the river and you can hear the barges going by all night. We walked the town and found about a dozen Mexican restaurants, chose one and got to-go fajitas for dinner and frozen Margaritas. Ron found the Dairy Queen in town and ate dessert first as it was another hot 93- degree day with a 100-degree heat index. This is the line that the tugs use to tie up at Beardstown, yes they tie up on the barge overnight too! No electricity but free bags of ice, which was great as we make no ice when we have no electricity. We run our generator minimally once we tie up to recharge electronics and keep the fridge cold but the courtesy rule is not to run your generator at night.Cruising down the IL did get more scenic as we went south. We used our autopilot and cruised at 8.5 miles an hour, so it was fairly easy navigating this river. Tied to a barge waiting to lock through at the Peoria Lock. This was one of the locks opened to pleasure craft during early morning hours, before 7 a.m. or late afternoon, after 3 p.m. So we locked through at the close of the day and then anchored out of the channel after the lock for the night, which worked out great. Found a restaurant dock, Mel’s IL Dockside Restaurant, and tied up for the night there for $20, cheapest we paid for a dockage but you get what you pay for no electricity or water is included for that price. We had a great walleye dinner with three couples of Canadian Loopers and THE best homemade pie we had on the Loop.Probably our last Looper dinner as we’ll cross our wake tomorrow in Grafton and won’t be seeing many Loopers on the Mississippi River. These folks are from the boats, Waterview, Northern Passage, and Steels Aweigh.We started the next day a little later in the morning, as we didn’t have far to travel to the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers which is where we officially started our Loop a year ago Sept. 21, 2021. We arrived at the buoy at 1 p.m. excited to have made our goal of completion yet sad to say goodbye to the Looper community as we officially exit the Loop route and head North for home. We are grateful for the many memories we have of the many Loopers, friends, and family who joined us on this journey and were a part of this adventure. Arrived at a covered slip at Port Charles marina, a quiet marina, where we could wash down and clean the boat, catch up on laundry, and visit some local relatives.Took the day off and went to October Fest in Downtown St. Charles, MORon’s Aunt Evelyn and Uncle DickDuck Club had restaurant right next to MarinaRon’s cousins Julie and JimRon’s cousin was kind enough to spot us a car, so we were able to do our final provisioning grocery run before heading up the Mississippi River. So we drove over and had a visit and lunch with Ron’s aunt and uncle and saw his cousins for dinner. Great to connect with them again, as we saw them a year ago when we started the Loop.
Although some may find the IL River not as exciting or perhaps even as scenic as many other parts of the Great Loop, what you have to appreciate is the fact that this is the connection between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. The IL River’s proximity to the Chicago river and the man-made Chicago Ship Canal is why the Great Loop exists otherwise it would be a “Great U-Turn” and what fun would that be? Also, one has to recognize the fact and appreciate that having all of these navigable waters in our country is unique and so key to our successful commerce.
Our next adventure is traveling up the Mississippi River against the current 650 miles and 24 lock and dams.
Reimanns 'round the loop in 2022 