Field Trips
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Chicago River Expedition - Monday, September 3, 2001 A trip down the North Branch of the Chicago River from Foster Avenue to Lake Michigan, by kayak and bicycle.
Refueled and refreshed for the rest of the journey, its a joy to be back on the water. There are lots of interesting industrial scenes to take a look at along the way, including this city-owned dredging barge tied up along Goose Island.
I was hoping to get a photo of one of the power boat yahoos racing directly up the river with a roaring wake behind, but so often they would come around the corner so abruptly that I never had a chance to get the camera ready. And after they had passed, I was too busy facing down the steep wakes, both from the boat directly as well as the waves reflecting from the metal walls of the channel. For many minutes after the boat had sped on, I'd still be struggling with the steep waves bouncing across the river and back again and again. Following the shore of Goose Island near the remnants of the old Ogden bridge I come across this miniature shipwreck. Kind of cute, like Scruffy the Tugboat. Where is the rest of Scruffy? How did this happen?
From there on downstream the shore is taken up by large, monotonous developments. The whole southern end of Goose Island is taken up by a large Greyhound garage and bus staging area. Above a long seawall, the butt ends of dozens of busses are presented for all river travelers to see. Its a shame that the dramatic reunification of the river at the tip of the island isn't home to anything more interesting. And on the left bank, the great wall of the Mongomery Ward warehouses blocks all views of escape. The building seems to be in the midst of repainting and redevelopment into condos, which may enliven the scene somewhat. But up ahead, the towering walls only get higher.
Passing under the amazing spiderwebbed ironwork of the Ohio Street bridge, the river is strewn across with a Milky Way of trash and floating detritus. Just then a speedboat comes along cruising upstream, forcing me to cut directly through the center of the sloshing, stinking mess to get out of the way. But staying near shore provides a close-up view of the homey decks and balconies of the River Cottages, the small riverside condos pointed out on an architectural boat tour I went on a few years ago. Many of the apartments had put out bird feeders and potted plants, one deck even had a dinghy for river excursions tethered by a rope. Sheltered under the trees the whole scene looks quite rustic and friendly and well-loved, unlike the stark new condos and boxy health club on the other side of the river, behind iron fences and stripped of all vegetation. But this is the end of the North Branch of the Chicago River. Now I'm entering the downtown Loop. Here the river joins the South Branch and the Main Branch in a major confusion of boat traffic big and small. In all this busy activity the river doesn't even seem to know which way to go. The South Branch is the famous section of the Chicago River that was reversed in 1900. While the natural flow was out toward the lake, nowadays the current flows southward to the Illinois River and then on to the Mississippi. As for the Main Branch, the current flows to the South Branch if water is let in from Lake Michigan from the locks at the river mouth, but during a flood in July this year, the sluice gates were opened and the Main Branch was allowed to flow in the other direction, spewing sewage-laden river water into the Lake, contaminating all the swimming beaches and endangering the city's drinking water. Dodging the tour boats and heavy powerboat traffic, I hurry across the river to hug the shore around Wolf Point. Here Sue and I stop to search for the Wolf Point geocache, which we were able to locate. It was a good place to rest a bit on shore, with the boat tied up to the rocks and bobbing in the wakes of incessant Labor Day boat traffic. Just crossing around the corner from the current of the North Branch brought an incredible improvement in water quality. When I step out of the boat onto a waterworn wooden retaining wall I look down and into sudden depths immediately below. Not clear enough to see the bottom, but clear enough to know that it's far deeper than I'd thought, and it's a little spooky. |
