Des Plaines River Canoe and Kayak Marathon
We kayaked the Des Plaines River for the first time this last weekend. As entrants in the Des Plaines River Canoe and Kayak Marathon we put-in in Libertyville, followed the river for 18.5 miles to the finish line at Dam 2 in Mount Prospect.
The race gives each boat a number and the race team tracks your boat numbers at key check points; your results are posted on line and a very nice awards session was held at the end of the race. We will treasure our nice patch that we got for finishing.
The Des Plaines River is beautiful! North of Dam 1, the river is narrow, twisting and turning, with lots of tree falls and remains from the flooding from last month. The water was shallow; we were expecting more depth. The current was slow in spots. We over-topped 2 dams before we got to Dam 1; this was a little scary for us, but the race staff had guides and spotters to make sure we went over at the right spot. For wildlife, we saw geese, great blue heron, kingfisher, orioles, etc.
Some observations on the race: two person canoes with experience paddlers were really fast! The race had a mid-race take-out point in Rivershire Park in Lincolnshire; maybe a we’d use this for recreational paddling.
Tips:
The race web site: link. I recommend getting there two hours before your start time. Drive your boats to the put in point, drop them off, drive you vehicle to the finish line, then take a shuttle bus back up to the start time. This takes time.
Another useful link: Google Race Map I downloaded these waypoints into my GPS device. Each point represents a bridge crossing.
At the finish line, the vendors ran out of water and soft drinks. Bring your own!
For our records, here the water level measurements: 19-May 17:45 as measured at Lincolnshire in Lake County is 6.9 ft, 158 cu ft/s
