Illinois River, Locks and... its the little things

We were the only boat on the Chicago River.

Bill and I left Chicago on 9/15 after an amazing few days in this glorious city.  So I humbly confess that I have been an ocean snob.  Wrong!  Chicago is laid out along Lake Michigan, and the Lake and Chicago River are integral to life here in this “inland” Midwestern City.  Thousands of boats line the waterfront, sailboat races are almost nightly, and the waterfront parks attract walkers, runners and bikers.  We leave the Great Lakes with so much respect and admiration.

A fellow Looper captured our boat
on the Illinois River.

So we set out early on a foggy Sunday morning and for ten or so minutes, faced the wildest waters we have yet seen on this trip. We safely made it through the Chicago lock and the entrance to the Chicago River which took us right through downtown, under 18 bridges, past historic buildings and glittering sky scrapers. The fog finally lifted as we passed the Sears (Willis) Tower.

There is a section of the Illinois River electrified to keep
Asian Carp out of the Great Lakes.  

As the skyscrapers fade away, huge industrial facilities begin to come into view in notable contrast. The river is no longer green blue, but is now a dark, opaque brown.  It is known as the Illinois Waterway with several named rivers before becoming the Illinois River.  We have 5 locks to get through before the locks close for two weeks for repairs.  Many fellow loopers are in the same race.  We are in communication with these boats by VHF radio and with an app called NEBO.  We have this last race to run before we can finally slow down and not be in a rush.  We got through the Lockport Lock, the first of these 5 locks,  and then spent the night rafted to another Looper boat against the Joliet wall. The wall has a capacity of only 12 or so boats, but we are doubled up since no recreational boats were allowed through the locks today.  Getting through the next four locks is now a challenge, as we are competing with river barges which are also trying to beat the lock closures.

Thus was the view from our roof of our Looper caravan
of boats in the Brandon Lock on the Illinois River.

The next morning, 2 of the Looper boat captains have taken charge of this caravan. They are in communication with the lockmasters and with each of us and are organizing how we can fit efficiently into these 600’ x100’ locks, the first one being Brandon Lock.  We have a green light for a 6:30 am departure.  Kudos to these two captains, as they calmly repeated instructions multiple times to these sometimes nervous pleasure boat captains. Our little boat was called to the front of the pack. Ultimately, about 28 boats fit in beautifully, rafted together in rows of 5 or 6 boats. This whole process took about 3 hours. Then on to Dresden Lock.  We got to the dam and had to wait on anchor for an hour or two to be called for passage. This time, the lockmaster only allowed 12 boats in, leaving the remainder of the boats to wait another few hours for the next opening.  We went through in the first group because our small boat allowed us to be right down front in the lock.

We didn't take this picture of Asian Carp, but I wanted to give
you an idea of what these fish can do,.

That day we made it through 1 more lock, Marseilles Lock, with Bill being the 12-boat convoy contact with the lockmaster.  We  finally tied up at the town dock in Ottawa, Illinois.  We had done 3 locks and 48 miles in 11 hours.  Coming into this dock, we turned up into a rapid current of a small river dumping into the Illinois.  As we are coming in, and I am outside the boat preparing the lines, I hear something huge fall off the top of the boat.  As I am trying to figure out what fell, I then see a huge fish leaping about 8’out of the water next to our boat. Maybe I screamed? Anyway, we get tied up to this rickety dock with the help of the couple already tied and he explains that we have seen an Asian carp, an invasive species that is a terrible nuisance in the Illinois. Look this up on YouTube and you will understand why I might have screamed.  Apparently they were stirred up by our outboard motor, and it is not uncommon for these fish to jump into boats.

The lower half of the Illinois River is serene and sparsely populated.

The next morning, we get through the last of the 5, Starved Rock Lock, with little difficulty.  We immediately turn on our 10 hp motor and raise our big motor.  We had been speeding along so far to stay up with the pack. We can finally slow down, stop racing the clock, or the tricky waves on Lake Michigan, or the lock closures.  As a fellow Looper put it, we feel like we have broken out of prison. Now, everyone can pass us. Our focus on the Illinois had been getting through, and we had not been terribly focused on where we were or what we were seeing. This all now changed.

Here I am in the courtroom where
Lincoln (see painting) argued the
famous Almanac Trial.

Many houses in Hardin were
surrounded by sandbags but still
severely damaged by the flood.

Our eyes were now opened to our surroundings. We hadn’t gotten off our boat in our lock race. We now got off most every day to see the little river towns, see the sites that the locals are proud of, eat the local fare and meet a few very kind people. We can tell you that Abe was everywhere along the Illinois. He won the famous Almanac Trial in Beardstown and represented clients throughout this section of Illinois.  There will be more on Lincoln in our next post.

The donuts were the best!

We had amazing fresh doughnuts from the Mexican Bakery in Beardstown. We had the best dinner of our trip at Mel’s Illinois River Dock Restaurant  in Hardin.

Houses up against the river are on stilts.

We talked to the locals about last spring’s flooding and levee breech resulting in the River rising 40 feet.  The bridge that services this close-knit town was closed for over two months, and the main road through town was only passable after it was raised many feet with gravel. 

Logsdon Tug Service rents out dock space amongst all its
gear and commercial activity.  Salty Paws is dwarfed by
its surroundings.

The ramp to the dock at Mel's Restaurant is not something
that we crossed in confidence, but we loved the town.

We tied up to a barge operation in Beardstown that words can’t describe. We will just say that this dock would have been condemned in Maine, and probably most anywhere else.  People we talked to were so friendly and welcoming. Some of the accents we heard (We don’t have accents in Maine!) were almost not interpretable.

Fortunately, the barge traffic was very light.  Here we
moved to "left descending bank" to await the middle
barge to pass between the two stationary barges. 

The River winds gently downstream. It is remarkable what you can see when you are cruising at a slow 7 mph. We saw countless birds, including eagles, white pelicans, white and blue herons and ducks. Trees come right up to river, with an occasional opening where we could see what was either rich farmland or grass growing in the levees no longer filled with water because of the breach.  We saw almost no houses or other buildings along the River.

We passed an occasional barge, but the traffic seemed to be slow, perhaps due to the lock closures. We always reached out to the tow captains asking if we could pass them on our  “ones” (our port) or the “twos” (our starboard) and they were always kind and respectful.

One of the most magical times of our cruise happened as we were about to leave the Illinois River to join the Mississippy.  We passed throug a migration of white pelicans.  There had to be thousands of them.  They fly in V or line formation and were filling the river and banks ahead of us.  Absolutely breath taking.  Now, on to the Mississippi.

White pelicans in flight.  60% of the migrating birds in North
America are said to follow the Mississippi south.

More white pelicans, or pellies as we call these beautiful, distinctive birds.

Time seems to stand still in many of these small communities.

I got a little nervous when this tug pulled up and stopped just
a foot or two shy of hitting Salty Paws.

The barges are all 35' by 105' and 15 can be rafted together,
3 across by 5 long.  The ones here are empty and secured to
the shore waiting new assignments once the locks re-open
on October 5th.  We passed hundreds of these stationary
barges.

There are few houses right on the Illinois River, and those
that do exist are on stilts.

Let's Get to Chicago!

Our boat at sunset in Leland, MI Harbor

The forecast called for 20 knot winds out of the west with gusts to 25-30 knots and 4 to 7 foot seas.  This is a day to stay in harbor.   Over the last two weeks we have repeated this multiple times as Lake Michigan hasn’t been particularly cooperative.  Originally, we wanted to cross the Lake to experience Door County in Wisconsin, but that is now out of the question.  We are sticking to the eastern shore of the Lake in Michigan.  We feel under a little time pressure as we want to reach Chicago in time to enjoy the City and still make it through the Illinois River locks before they close for two weeks of maintenance on September 20^th.  Schedules aren’t good on the water.

Fishtown shop.

Fishtown boat and nets.

We used our extra time in Leland to explore this summer community.  Leland is home to Fishtown, the last surviving commercial fishing port on Lake Michigan as declining fish stocks wiped out all the others.  To maintain its viability, about two thirds of the numerous wooden fish houses now house various tourist shops.  Another Leland draw is Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, one of the most beautiful spots in Michigan.  The Park is twenty miles outside of town, however.  How could we get there?

Walking up Sleeping Bear Dune.
Glen Lake is in the background.

Are we there yet?

We make it to the Lake Michigan.

This part of Michigan is still rural.  There is no Uber or Lyft, and the nearest rental car is 25 miles away in Traverse City.  Fortunately, we found retired business owner Johnnie who runs a pickup service when he wants to work.  Johnnie picked us up in his Cadillac and served as our tour guide.  After a tour of town, he dropped us off at Sleeping Bear, telling us to take whatever time we needed.  We had no idea what to expect.  Walking barefoot and being misled by many false peaks, we trudged 2 miles, finally reached the shores of Lake Michigan.   Our round trip took close to two hours.  Johnnie must have taken a nap, and he was there waiting for us.  We have seen the large sand dunes on Cape Cod, but nothing compares to the dunes in Michigan.  They encompass most all of the eastern lakeshore and are often miles wide.  Sleeping Bear is the tallest, rising 450 feet about Lake Michigan. 

Sleeping Bear Dune from the water.

This is a beautiful state, but this Lake is beginning to wear on Molly.  Let’s just get to Chicago, and damn the gas mileage.  [Our boat gets 5 miles per gallon at 6 mph, 3 miles per gallon at 8 mpg and 1.2 miles per gallon at 20-25 miles per gallon.]  We leave all the Looper cruiser friends made to-date as they mostly have slow trawlers.  They will have to go down the Illinois River in October. 

Sunrise in the Les Cheneaux
Islands

We motored past  Mackinac Island
but didn't stop as we had visited before.

Our typical days on the water had been four hours to go 30 miles or so.  Now it is 5 or 6 hours to go 100 miles.  The pictures capture some of our stops, and now we find ourselves in Benton Harbor, 60 miles across the Lake from Chicago.  We anchor for two nights in the St. Joseph River, waiting for the latest gale to pass.  Finally, there is a one-day window opening on Wednesday (9/10) to cross to Chicago.

Finally got warm enough again to have cocktails on the bow
in Benton Harbor.

We are motoring out the River by 7 am, only to be stopped by the usually raised railroad bridge that is now lowered for a passing train.  After a 30 minute wait, we are finally on our way.

Happy to be in Chicago!

The Lake is cooperative, and three hours later the Chicago skyline towers over our boat.  What a sight.  We get a mooring in Monroe Harbor at the base of Millennium Park and the city center.  A call on our marine radio quickly brings out the launch boat to take us ashore.  Four days and nights later we have walked 30 miles and had a great sampling of the City - the River Walk modeled after San Antonio's,  the Art Institute, Lou Malnati’s Pizza, Adler Planetarium, Portillo’s Hot Dogs, Architectural Tour on a Chicago River cruise boat, the various city center parks, Navy Pier and the Centennial Ferris Wheel, Buckingham Fountain and the Red Line to a Cubs game.  Our pictures are below.

Chicago is the Windy City not because of its wind [although that would be fitting], but because its politicians a century or so ago didn't know when to stop talking about the virtues of their city.  According to legend that is why that got to host both the 1897 and the 1933 World Expos in the United States before many other cities hosted even one.

We just got picked up by the launch boat.

We are now starting down the rivers while our Looper friends remain stuck in various Lake Michigan ports due to the weather.  [One forecast had 13 foot seas in the open Lake.]  Today we entered the lock that separates Lake Michigan from the Chicago River, which used to flow into the Lake and now flows in the opposite direction.  As one tour guide noted, Chicago’s pollution used to end up in Lake Michigan.  Now it flows south to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico!  And, so will we.

While in Chicago we joined
24 other Loopers for Docktails.

Chagall's American Windows at the
Art Institute.

On the Architectural River Boat Cruise.

Everyone knows this -
American Gothic by
Grant Wood.

The game was a slugfest with Cubs winning 17-8.

Chicago's deep dish pizza.

Picasso's gift to Chicago.

Everyone calls it the Bean in Millennium Park, but to the
artist it is the Cloudy Gate.

Buckingham Fountain.

At the top of the Ferris Wheel.

The Cenntenial Ferris Wheel.

Candid shot of the Captain by the
Admiral in the Chicago River,

Willis Tower, still referred to by most as
The Sears Tower, was still in the clouds as
we left Chicago.

Salty Paws starting down the Chicago River.

Don't go swimming here.  Electric  shock is used to keep
invasive fish species like Carp from getting to the Great Lakes.

Here Salty Paws waits for the barge to pass between two stationary barges in the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal
that connects the Chicago River and the Illinois River.

Piles of sand and other building materials and the barges that carry this material line the banks once we leave Chicago.

Recreational boats are given the lowest priority on the Illinois River locks.  Commerce is king.

World's Best Freshwater Cruising Grounds

Covered Portage Cove, off
the North Channel

Our favorite anchorage so far - Mary Ann Cove in Baie Fine
off the North Channel.

Our boat is 400 feet below
Molly's elbow in Covered
Portage Cove.

The view on Casson Peak, above Mary Ann Cove.  There
is a dot that is our boat!

The green line shows our cruising progress to date.

There is a saying that we heard that goes something like this, “The Great Lakes will prepare  you for the ocean, but the ocean will not prepare you for the Great Lakes.”  We learned this early on in Georgian Bay (technically part of Lake Huron, but also sometimes referred to as the 6^th Great Lake) where a modest 10 mph wind and only 1-foot seas resulted in one of our more uncomfortable open water crossings.  While Georgian Bay is 100 miles long and averages 40 miles across, it is like a bathtub and waves bounce off the sides and can reverberate in all directions.

Wingfield Basin before
dawn, Bruce Peninsula.

Ski slopes in Collingwood.

The clear waters of Georgian Bay.

Bruce Peninsula.

 We wanted to put our time to good use, and I looked at options as to how we could explore Bruce Peninsula National Park on foot, the main entrance of which is some 12 miles back down the southern coast. Also, there is no Uber here and because of crowd control measures one must have a reservation and a car to enter the main area of the Park. 

By 10 am a crowd is already gathered for
swimming off the cliffs and main grotto
in Bruce Peninsula National Park.

We saw a Massasauga Rattlesnake!

We took off Monday morning, minus Jan, he wasn’t feeling well, and got dropped off for the expected 7-hour hike back to Tobermory.  The scenery was spectacular, and the need for crowd control was clear as there were already a couple of hundred people near the Grotto, the Park’s main attraction.  Once we got a little way past the Grotto, however, the crowds quickly diminished to zero, and we were left hiking the splendor of the cliffs and rocky beaches in solitude except for the real Massasauga Rattlesnake that Stacy almost stepped on!

Stacy and Molly next to one of
the grottoes in the Park.

One of the few rock beaches in the Park.  There were very
few hikers after we left the main grotto.

Five miles in Molly’s back began to spasm.  With limited assistance of Tylenol and back rubs, she gamely continued as we were around four miles from the nearest road that went to Little Cove.  In her head she was already thinking about commandeering a car there.  About ½ mile from the Cove three hikers going to Little Cove caught up to us.  Molly made a quick connection with one of them and asked if they would give us a ride back to Tobermory.  Few can say no to Molly, and an hour later we are back at our boat having hitched a ride for the last three miles. 

The next day, Tuesday, was one to do laundry, grocery shopping and regularly check the weather.  The forecast continued to look grim until Saturday afternoon at the earliest, and we were facing a 50-mile open water crossing to the beginning of the famous North Channel in Killarney.  There was a small opening early Wednesday morning when the winds were to be a

On the water before dawn. We saw the sun come up.

 down to 15 knots out of the southwest, which would put them on our stern, an advantage if the waves weren’t too big.  We conferred with our Looper friends Jan and Stacy, who were going on the same crossing, and agreed to decide at 5:30 am in the morning after looking at the updated forecast.  We awoke early and with some trepidation the decision was made to go, and both our boats left the dock at 6:15 am before the sun came up.

The liquor store dock was closed. 

 Fortunately, the waves were only 1-2 feet until the very end, and we matched the 15 mph wind speed for most of the crossing.  It was still a relief to reach Killarney harbor although we were disappointed not to be able to tie up to the only LCBO liquor store dock that we know about.  The dock was at or under water as Georgian Bay is still almost two feet above its normal level. 

Our boat in Covered Portage Haror

Much enjoyed meeting fellow Rossi
 owners Mike & Mellisa in Covered
Portage. They joined Jan and Stacy
for cocktails on our boat that night.

Mary Ann Cove.

We motored past on our way to some of the most beautiful freshwater cruising grounds in the world.  The pictures here are worth a thousand words, as they say, as we anchored one night each in Covered Portage Cove, 

the Baie Fine Pool and Mary Ann Cove off Baie Fine.  At each stop we were able to hike the hills surrounding the anchorages and witness some of the most gorgeous scenery anywhere.  

On Casson Peak.

The morning view from our boat in Mary Ann.

Here the stern of the boat is tied to a tree on the shore.  Molly and I both agreed that this is our favorite anchoring spot so far on our Great Loop adventure.  In addition, the hike up Frazer Bay Hill (locally known as Casson Peak) was spectacular.

Without the sun shining
Topaz Lake didn't have its
color but the water was nice.

The next two days brought us through the beautiful Benjamin Islands, known for pink granite, and to Beardrop Harbour, part of First Nations Reservation land and another spectacular stop in the North Channel.  By many accounts, this are the world's best freshwater cruising grounds.

The temperatures are dropping
but we have a cabin heater, and
I have my hat that Caroline
gave me.

Today (9/2) we  headed south for the first time, crossed the North Channel and entered US waters off Drummond Island, Michigan.  We have said goodbye to our Looper friends Jan and Stacy Risheim, who have completed the Loop and are now headed to Wisconsin to have their boat hauled and shipped back to their home port, Seattle, Washington.  They have lived on their boat Ceci Kay, a Nordic Tug 37 for 3 1/2 years and cruised to Alaska, down the California coast to the Sea of Cortez, and now the Great Loop with a side trip to the Bahamas.  I look forward to trailering our boat as an RV across country and doing some cruising with them in Washington state and British Columbia.  But that is for another day!

The  Banjamin Islands, North Channel, are known for pink
granite.  

For now we will miss the beautiful Canadian waters and hospitality, but look forward to our upcoming US adventures on Lake Michigan and the rivers down to the Gulf of Mexico.

Anchored off the North
Channel in Beardrop Harbor.

The rocks in Beardrop.