Streak = 20. New territory explored!!

The streak hit 20 consecutive months as we hit the river on July 1st despite the record low reading of 4.82 on the Naperville gauge. Although Pat's leg needed a little pulling (he thought with the river depth that we would be dragging the kayaks down the river, not paddling), Dan has been thinking of this "new" trip for many months and was going to do it with someone or not. What is this new trip you ask?



We put in at DuPage River Parkway (East branch) with a takeout at Knoch Knolls (West branch). We had previously (about month 5 of the streak) floated down the WBDR and passed by the convergence of the EBDR so we knew it was not too far south of Knoch Knolls. With the low water level we anticipated more dragging than floating but that was not the case. The 2.66 miles of the east branch were a non issue and we did not get stuck once. We did see a beaver, a deer (in the water), a meercat (maybe), a jumping carp and multiple herons. Both Pat and Dan thought this was one of the best stretches of either river.

The first picture is Pat indicating that we had come to the place where the two rivers met. You can also see in the pictures that there was a noticeable difference in color between the two branches: murky light green east branch verse, dark clear west branch. Once we headed up stream on the West branch the low water level was a factor and we did need to walk a couple time during a 100 yard stretch. Overall this was a keeper trip that will be repeated.