Last weekend I tackled one of my favorite spring runs: the Illinois River with my friends Pete from Momentum River Expeditions and Will from Rogue River Journeys. Usually February trips on the Illinois are cold and rainy, but we really lucked out with blue skies and the warmest weather possible in February.
This trip could easily last four days, but since most of us knew the river well, we were able to run it in 2 long days. We camped the first night at South Bend, a small camp at the beginning of the Inner Gorge. The second morning, there was barely time to wake up before we hit Initiation in the first 10 minutes of being on the water and were at Green Wall by 10 AM. Green Wall rapid is a solid Class V and on Sunday its teeth came out when a new hydraulic appeared (nicknamed Harvey), which required even more precision than normal.
Beyond Green Wall, we enjoyed the remaining rapids of the Inner Gorge on a sunny day and were off the river in the late afternoon with enough time to see the sunset over the Isaac Lee Patterson Bridge and near the Pacific Ocean. A big thanks to Will and Dana for doing all the planning and to everyone who drove all the way from Nevada and Idaho to join us!
