Consecutive Month 23 and 24

Mid October was our 23rd consecutive month as we de-flowered another Duper virgin. Perry had the iniation rites performed in the normal way...right in the middle of the woods with the great horned owl looking down upon us. Perry will deny all accounts of this trip as he refuses to acknowledge the existence of an owl on the Duper or any initiation rites of passage that were performed on him. Dan, Kent and Pat, the original Duper boys, all just smiled amongst themselves in a way that only they could understand and appreciate. It is not our place to question the existence of the almighty owl or why he is present during the daylight hours, we just know what happens on the river stays on the river (other than the nonsense I write on this blog!!).

The lack of rain seriously threatened our streak on the river (easy readers, we do not STREAK on the river). Alternate plans were being made by Dan and Pat to go visit a lake to keep the streak alive......why you ask? If you have to ask I do not expect you to understand. We got our 1st significant rain in a couple of months and the 24th month was no longer in doubt. Dan and Pat hit the Hidden Lake to Community park run on Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Two interesting nature sitings, a 6 point buck and a squirrel swimming. I am not sure if that is normal but it is something neither one of us had ever seen.

Friday after T-day Kent and Dan hit another tried and true route: Community park to Royce road. We had a serious tree blockage which resulted in Kent staying in the kayak and getting soaked and Dan portaging and staying dry. We saw our wounded heron buddy as well as 4 deer crossing the river. Does anyone else realize what they are missing out on by not using the Duper? There was at least one other nut enjoying the river this day....as you can see in the 1st photo a fisherman was out wading. The middle picture is Kent and Perry approaching the 7 bridges rapids and the 3rd one is Kent on the November trip. Sorry for the out of order pictures. Double click on the photos for a larger view.

Larry does the Limbo!!

Larry and James visited from Kansas and brought along their two kayaks hoping to find some quality river time. Unfortunately, the lack of rain left the Duper in a sad state of water deficiency. We did however, make our way to Churchill Woods forest preserve to give the East branch of the DuPage river a try. Before we headed up stream, we explored the islands near the put in sight. As you can see from the 1st picture (click on it for a larger view), Larry became one with his kayak and was somehow able to get under the bridge. James and Dan did not feel it was in their best interest to attempt a similar feat.

Although we had no significant wildlife sightings (outside the usual herons, ducks, carp etc.) or any fantastic tale to tell, it was the 1st trip involving 3 solo 'yaks and it involved a couple new paddlers. We are still a week or two away from some quality tree color but as I have said many times before......time spent on the river with good friends and family is a pretty good way to kill a few hours. October is here and I will surely be out again soon to extend my streak to 23 consecutive kayaking months. LET THERE BE RAIN!!!

2 river trips, one entry

Kent and I put in at Hidden Lake on 9/15/07 and had a world's record slow pace down to Community park. The float through the Arboretum was enjoyable but the river was about as low as we have experienced. We did very little paddling and let the slow pace of the river take us peacefully to our destination.

A very uneventful float but enjoyable nonetheless.

On 9/22/07, the Duper boys ventured down to Shorewood to recreate our excellent adventure from 9/1/07 when the rapids were raging. A funny thing about rivers, they prefer to have water in them. Although we did not get stuck very often, the payoff at the end of this route is supposed to be the class 2 rapids that we experienced 2 weeks ago. No water = no rapids. This is a nice stretch with or without rapids and we did start to see some color on the trees. We need some rain!!!

Streak = 22 mths. Rapids at Shepley!!!

Kent and Dan took the 2 solo 'yaks down to Hammel woods to give Dan a taste of the Illinois' rapids. The Watertrails map (see link to the right) says in times of high water this section provides nice rapid action. Although the river was clearly about 4 ft lower than last week this was the best action Dan has experienced in the Pungo classic. Definitely worth the 45 minute drive. The 5.44 mile river trip took a little over 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete. We saw 2 deer on the bank, a hawk and some blue heron. Even with breakfast, the total time of this little adventure was about 4 hours. Not bad considering even our smallest trips seem to take 3 hours once you do the car drop off, etc.

This September 1 trip brought the consecutive month streak to 22.

Raging River...is this the Colorado?

The recent rain engorged the river to an all time high of 9.05 on the Naperville guage. Pat and Dan were in the tandem and Kent did the solo thing. We put in at Centennial beach with a takeout of Knoch Knolls. The GPS indicated our high speed was 9.1 mph with an average speed of about 6 miles an hour. We finished the 5.73 mile trek in 56 minutes. This trip normally takes about 1.5 hours.

With the river so high and fast the ability to take quality rivers shots was diminished. As you can see from the pictures, the river was over much of the walking path downtown and flooding the parking lot at Knoch Knolls. At this depth (and this fast) there was one bridge in Naperville that we had a precarious moment passing under. We managed to get through without impaling our heads on the low hanging metal brackets hanging under the bridge.

Sunday 8/27/07 - Saturday was so good I decided to take out Duper virgin Andy on the same route. Just one day later the river was noticeably lower (8.2) and passing under the bridge mentioned above was a non-issue. The speed of the river seemed about the same but Andy's desire to show off his manly paddling prowess propelled us to an even quicker time than the day before. I tried to explain that the appeal of the Duper is the float not the paddle!!

1st ever Night float - or- "Float of the bugs"

Another first for the Duper boys as we took ourselves up on our long time threat to tame the beast at night. Ideally this should be done with a full moon (keep you pants up, we are talking lunar not gluteal), but a call from Kent, a spur of the moment decision and we were off.



We put in at Hidden Lake with the destination of Community Park. We figured a well known route was our best option with the limited visibility. As you can see in the picture, we had our headlamps on and were ready to start another chapter of life on the Duper. When there was no tree cover the lights were not all that necessary even though we had no moon light. However, when we were in the Arboretum, the light was necessary. Remember how moths and bugs congregate around porch lights at home and around lanterns while camping? Guess what? They like headlamps on the river also!!!

A few swallowed bugs were washed down with a couple Fat Tire brews while we held each other and watched the fireworks being ignited at the Bandit game. All in all, not a bad way to spend a Friday evening.

Mad River Canoe trip extends streak to 21

The recent rain on Saturday night boosted the river to a canoe-able 5.3 so Pat and Dan took out the Mad River Canoe for the obligatory August float. With the streak extended to 21 months our next mission was to make sure we did not get stuck in downtown Naperville. The feel and float is definatley different from the kayak to the canoe and there was a time or two that we felt as if we might get swamped (stuck on a rock perpendicluar to the water flow for instance). Despite the oppressive heat and the near mishap, the crowd in Naperville got to its feet to observe the skilled oarsmen manuever through the obstacles as if their boat was a hot knife cutting through butter. Thanks for the encouragement, girls!