People gathered from all around:  Champaign, Urbana, Mahomet, Dewey; from the Sierra Club, from the Upper Sangamon River Conservancy, and from the Izaak Walton League.  Some were friends and some family, and some destined to become new friends. Some were young and some were old. Some came by mini-van, some by convertible, some by old pick-up truck, and one by […]

The river is fully twelve steps down at my place. The shallowest of the year. Last weeked members of the USRC led a float trip with our friends from the Sierra Club down the river from the Sangamon River Forest Preserve to Lake of the Woods. It was a fun trip  and a full day, with 17 people starting out […]

The river is down as low as I've seen it so far this year. Crooked Creek, that runs by house, has stopped flowing. That's about normal. I was out for a swim in the river before work this morning. I live on the river, might as well enjoy it! July 4 Freedom Fest was very successful for us as we […]

We had a great event today on the Sangamon. Twelve paddlers in all. 8 left from Scott's Landing (my place) for the IL47/Division Street bridge. A crew of Mike's family and friends joined us a bit downstream. We had our first few capsized boats by the first half hour, but thankfully, none after that. Except for that little incident with […]

One of my great pleasures in life is the afternoon, after work, spontaneous paddle up the river. The river is a cool, verdant tunnel of green on a warm late afternoon. These days, the river is a great depth with a strong flow. But paddling upstream nonetheless presents no real problem. Then when I turn to come down I go with […]

Mike, Tim, Jim, Chuck, Stu and Scott got out this past Saturday (May 14) for a litte Sangamon River Stewardship. We cleaned up a four or five mile stretch of the river upstream from Lake of the Woods to County Road 2500N. We came by foot, by paddle, and by convertible. Jim paddled upstream from Riverbend, Tim paddled downstream from […]