Canoe think of anything better than a day on the water? I shore can’t! (aka Our State Park Summer)

 

This summer we decided to stay local, and visited a bunch of Illinois State and County Parks.  We've both lived in Illinois all our lives, so some we had been to in the past, but a few were new to us.

My last blog post was about Fyrne Clyffe in Southern Illinois, which had some surprising waterfalls, and a lake for fishing but not big enough for much else.  It was a new park to us, and we would go back to Southern Illinois again, but maybe not to this campground.  The Shawnee National Forest has a lot of options, but for us it means a long weekend trip, ideally with at least four days, because of the long drive there and back. 

A few weekends later, because it was hot, we went north to White Pines in Mt. Morris.  Again, a fun experience, but not one we would return to with regularity.  For us, the highlight was driving the Metris across the fords.  (Not fjords, as I kept wanting to call them.)  The creek that runs through the park has trout, too.  I caught one small one, but let it go.  Dan hiked and said the trails were good.  This is a Civilian Conversation Corps park built in the 1930s.  We had Sunday brunch at the original lodge, and that was tasty.  But overall, the park needs some love (money).  

On the way home from White Pines, we took a detour over to Lowden State Park. There we saw a VW camping group, felt sad for a minute that they did not really know why we were waving to them, and this:  

Another weekend, in the heat of it all, we returned to our local favorite: Comlara County Park and Lake Evergreen.  Here we were able to rent a canoe for a few hours so we could be out on the water. It was a decent canoe, and we knew what to expect.  A word here about us and canoes.  Growing up, my Dad had one for a while, and we would take it out on our local lake - just for fun.  Then we also took many vacation trips to the Current River in Missouri, where we would do float trips with friend groups, or church groups.  I thought they were great fun!  Dan, on the other hand, as a kid, spent almost every weekend in the summer on a canoe trip somewhere with his dad and brothers.  They were much more serious about it.  Dan laughed when early in our relationship, I suggested a float trip with family, not really knowing that was all he did most summers! So keep that in mind as my story of our summer progresses.... 

 

In mid June, we drove North to Morrison-Rockwood, where we set up the Metris to camp. On Saturday, we rented a canoe to spend a few hours on the lake. Except for the lake, there really isn't much else to do there.  I have been trying my hand at fishing this summer, and I caught a few small pan fish, but no keepers.  Dan has never really been into fishing, but in Illinois on Father's Day you can fish for free, so he gave it a whirl.  The lake was nice, but the canoe was crap.  

 

Canoe believe how much fun we’re having?

 

Why merely paddle through life when you can make waves of laughter?

 

Canoe believe how serene it is out here on the water?

Once we got past the worst heat of July, we headed out again.  This time to Argyle Lake State Park in Colchester, IL.  We set up camp, which with the Metris is getting very easy to do, and on Saturday we rented a canoe, and again I tried my hand at fishing. Dan bought his license, and cast a few times, as well. No fish for supper.  The lake was nice, but the canoe was crap.  (Is this sounding like a broken record yet?)

 

I’ve got this paddling thing down, you could say I’m going with the flow!

 

Except at this point, Dan has noticed that he is doing most of the paddling! :) 

 

 

So after these two not so positive rental experiences, we started to talk about buying our own canoe.  Would it be worth it?  How much would it cost?  etc...  Then one evening, while surfing the web for "used canoes near me" we discovered that our local Girl Scout Council was selling off some of their fleet.   For $350 we could get an aluminum 17' Grumman, and the money went to our council. I was a GS leader for years, and our daughter used those canoes at camp. What a steal! They were older, but basically indestructible. We already had a set of really nice wooden paddles, and it was a good price, so we took the hook and swam with it.  We got a set of life jackets from Bass Pro, and Dan ordered a rack for the top of the Metris. We spent more on the rack than we did the canoe!  We didn't have the rack yet when we went to pick it up, so we used our VW.

And then it got hot again.  I mean HOT!  So I used the time to personalize the new canoe.  There were Girl Scout logos painted on the sides, and layers of stickers from years of local permits.  I stripped the paint off, washed the canoe and ordered some fun stickers.  The black matte vinyl on the bow and keel keeps the sun from blinding you while paddling.

The racks finally arrived, and we got them installed.  They are from the same company that manufactured the rails that were already on top of the pop-top:  Rhino.  They were easy to install, and have worked out just fine.

Then we hit the road with our canoe on top, bikes on the back, and more gear to carry inside.  Destination: Lake George. 

This is a nice county park not too far from the Quad Cities. It is located in the Loud Thunder Forest Preserve and along the Mississippi River. There is every level of camping from very primitive to big rig parking with full hook-ups.  We chose a non-electric site, because of proximity to the boat dock, and because we don't need electric anymore.  We are set to just use the auxiliary battery in the Metris. The bikes were nice for getting to the bath house, but the lake road had steep hills so we didn't use them as much as we had hoped to. 

Before setting up camp, I dropped Dan and the canoe off at the boat ramp, and he paddled it solo over to the dock by the campground.  This was not a challenge for him (remember all those years of experience) but I was sufficiently impressed.

 

Fishing was crap, but the lake was nice and we enjoyed being on the water whenever we wanted!

 

A few more hot weeks and then we were at it again! This time, closer to home because we only had one night.  It was Labor Day weekend, and we had obligations on Friday and Saturday, but on Sunday we took our chances and headed to Dawson Lake in Moraine View State Park.  No bikes this time, so packing was simpler, and we only needed food for two days.  We got lucky, and there was an open camp site with no direct neighbors.  For Labor Day weekend camping, we were happy with it.  Lake access was close, and the weather was wonderful.  Once again, the fishing was crap - but the lake was nice.  We saw deer, wild turkeys, an eagle, and lots of water fowl.  Dan has decided that paddling lakes is boring, and he would really rather have a sailboat. But, I suspect a few river trips may be in our future this fall.   And just like that, the summer was over!

Keep calm and paddle on, life’s too short for bad vibes and still waters!

 

  Life is like a canoe; sometimes you just have to paddle through the rough waters.

 

 When life gives you waves, just paddle harder!