PLANNING FOR THE RIVER SYSTEM: CHICAGO TO GREEN TURTLE BAY

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
In my opinion, planning for the canals and lakes was an easier task, if not a little surprising. Planning the river portion is a different animal. Now, I live on a river. I know that the little leaf I see could be connected to a 90 year old submerged oak. I know how that current can swallow a person whole.

Being a teacher, I have to visualize how I want something to work and think of what adjustments I could make mid-teaching to make it all work. I needed to wrap my head around the AGLCA webinar/notes and text resources I'm using to fully understand where diesel fuel is available, where marinas/anchorages are located, and where I am able to collect provisions. Boating is second nature to Jim; I know I will always be safe.

BOATING
We used  a collection of text resources, websites, and apps. Because rivers are tricky and run high or low, we always double checked before we would head out to the next location; the river may have had a change of heart. 

Here are some additional websites I added to our collection for this section of our trip.
  • mvr.usace.army.mil.com The Army Corps of Engineers has a website that is priceless: Illinois Waterway Closures, Bridge Clearance Calculator, Corps Locks, Navigational notes and charts, then so much more. The lock que report is the best addition to the website. The que report allows you to see what barges are scheduled to lock for each of the lock-controlled waterways. It will help you decide to stay put or boat on. If you have a 5-hour wait, you might want to decide to hang back and investigate your surroundings for a day or so.
  • tenntom.org I haven’t used this site yet, but I know I will because it has all the phone numbers for the locks along the Tennessee and Tombigbee Rivers. UPDATE: We used this site everyday along the Tenn-Tom
  • waterdata.usgs.gov You need to know about the downtown Chicago bridges BEFORE you start. Use this website for gage height, discharge (cubic feet per second), and water velocity (feet per second). Next, you will need to factor in your boat’s height with the radar tower and make a decision: leave it up, take it down, or plan to reroute your trip. All the bridges in Chicago are 18-19 feet and there’s like … 40 of them!

Who knows what awesome website or app will be available in the future; it only gets better - right?! But whatever book, tech, map was used, we always had a plan. If you have a plan, you have a starting place even though we know there will be changes. 

The 2021 challenge for the river system has been the lack of rain. The river is almost too low to get into certain marinas and that can be a problem.

PROVISIONING
When we left the Chicago/Hammond area, I was stocked for seven days. I figured people along the river had to eat too so seven days seemed reasonable.





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