Salt Creek w/stream monitoring Sat. June 18, 2005

[Melinda Tury]

The official trip report was filed on Sat. night. Here is "the rest of the story" like Paul Harvey would say! We started out with the stream monitoring led by Debbie Gayon from Fullersburg Woods. We had 14 people attend - 8 members and 6 guests. After much laughing, splashing, and identifying of macroinvertebrates we came up with a stream rating of "low good" to "high fair" with almost NO poor macroinvertebrates found! The car shift went smoothly -thanks Mary for the suttle - but then the fun began! Even though this trip was listed as advanced beginner we soon discovered we had some "guests" along that had never been in a canoe! Four canoes tipped and one kayak some multiple times - no not me! However I came darned close one time! The river level was very low with a LOT of scraping, dragging, walking down river, and portaging! Ray Ziemer led down the river assisting with rescues along the way and I played sweep giving canoe lessons and pep talks as the tears flowed from some very frustrated ladies! The trip which should have lasted about 2 1/2 hours ended up taking 4 1/2 hours making Ray very late for a graduation party - he earned his halo for sure this day! The take out involved a hike through the woods to the parking lot. Luckily, we recruted a bunch of young strong guys picnicing who took pity on all those exhausted ladies and helped lug all the boats from the river to our cars AND helped load them! In higher water this would have been an easy float with pleasant temperatures and forest preserves along the entire trip. I don't think some of those ladies will ever get in a canoe again! Me- bring on the next river! Ray - I owe you a drink! Melinda Tury