Trip Report
Illinois River      May 17-19, 2002
Even though the weather was not looking promising on Friday morning, everyone who braved the elements to load up and head out to Tahlequah for our trip down the Illinois was in for a real treat. By late Friday afternoon, the sun was peeking out of the clouds and most things (except firewood) were beginning to dry out a bit. Folks began arriving around 4 pm. There was a lot of renewing of acquaintances and catching up as many were out for their first trip of the year. All told around 24 people and 16 boats turned out.
After we set up camp, we went to the river and found that it had been rising through the day and was running at right around 6ft. This represents a flow of about 2500cfs, which is pretty swift for the Illinois. After some time and a few sideways comments about Texans not being able to properly light a fire, we got our really damp campfire going. Everyone had their supper and sat around the smoky fire, occasionally moving to avoid the drifting smoke. During the night the river continued to rise and by morning was running at a little over 3200cfs. By later in the afternoon on Saturday the Illinois peaked at about 4600.
We decided that since we had such good flow that we would try a stretch of the upper section. We ran a shuttle to the Chewey Bridge put in and were off and running by about 11am. The weather was sunny, but not too warm and it was nice to see that we still had blue skies overhead. The river was unusually wide due to the flow and most of the larger obstacles like tree stumps and rocks were deep below the surface creating some "almost whitewater" spots that were a blast to run through. This 14mile section usually takes the majority of the day to run, but due to the increased flow, we were making spectacular time. We completed the first 4 miles in around 30 minutes. When you were actually out on the river, you really had no sense of exactly how fast you were moving, when you pulled up on shore and watched everyone go by, it was amazing. The normal lunch stop on this section is Hanging Rock Camp, but most didn't see it until it was too late to stop, so everyone kept going until we returned to Peyton's Place. We were back at camp having lunch by about 1:30pm, having completed the 14 miles in less than 2 1/2 hours.
After lunch, we decided that another section was in order since it was so early in the day. We ran a shuttle to Sparrow Hawk Camp and set out on the 16 mile run from Peyton's Place around Elephant Rock to Sparrow Hawk. Due to the flow the river was higher and wider than normal creating some more "almost rapids" and making paddling more of a steering exercise than a necessity. We floated into Sparrow Hawk in just under 3 hours having averaged 5.5 mph on the trip. By nightfall, we were back at the now mostly smoke free campfire having supper. Everyone was pretty amazed at the amount of river we had been able to cover that day and were planning a"short"trip for Sunday morning.
Ordinarily, we do a 4 or 6-mile stretch on Sunday before packing up and heading home, but the river had only dropped about a foot or so over night leaving it at around 5 ˝ feet and about 2200cfs. The group that was going decided to do the Peyton's to Sparrow Hawk section again, figuring that they could complete it around the same amount of time as the day before. All told, some of our paddlers racked up 46 miles in two days! That's pretty good for the slow moving Illinois. All in all this was another great trip. I would like to thank everyone who came and made this such a great weekend.
Also worth mentioning are the improvements that have been made to Peyton's Place over the winter. A new restroom and shower facility as well as RV pad sites with electricity and water has been completed. The restroom however would be the crown jewel, with its larger men's and ladies rooms and 8 shower rooms with real locking doors. Anyone who has seen or used the old restrooms will appreciate this new structure.
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