Big Rock Creek Trip Report - 11/07/09



-- And some other Notes --
Well ... you did miss it. The trip was GREAT, trip report on the PSC website. I found out a lot about the creek. For instance, I thought the creek averaged 15 ft. down to Klatt Park, well its is probably around 20 - 25 ft., amongst other things. It's a BEAUTIFUL creek, very unspoiled by humans, very little trash - what there was were large items; ie metal tank, car door, etc. But those were few. I did get the location of the dams, and got to see what was in store for future trips. I found that the large creek wide trees that had fallen could probably be trimmed up a bit to allow safe passage, but it will take blood, sweat & tears (maybe not so much blood or tears; but a lot of sweat). We only went from Galena Rd. to Hale St.; about six miles; but it took about 4 hours. The creek was moving pretty good; not at all like the weekend before; but moving to the point of making it an enjoyable & challenging paddle. More height would have been good in getting through a couple of areas, but the large trees would have taken an extra 2 ft. to clear, but then it would have been way to fast to be safe. So I'm afraid; short of chain saw work; that we'll just have to live with some downed trees and let nature do our clearing of those. We did find some exhilarating drops and some great riffles; not whitewater; but fun none the less. I would love to do it again and go to the Fox River next time. I also saw where we could do some boat clearing/trimming that would help. It was rewarding to find that all the work that myself, my wife & son did this past summer upstream of Klatt Park was worth the sweat equity. We sailed right through those previous strainers; I also found a few more spots in that area that still require work. If the weather holds up this fall, I may yet get back in there. Maybe, also, if the weather holds up we could get in another trip before it gets too cold, because you do get wet from the portages. I took my canoe, it worked great on this size creek. I did take some pictures, I'll get post some soon.
If anyone is interested in doing some canoe clearing work, please reply to this post.
D Watts
For other trips please go to the Prairie State Canoeists Web Site, located at:
http://www.prairiestatecanoeists.org/index.php