Trip ID: 1261 Back to list of trip reports. This trip report has been viewed 16 times.
| River or Event: | Chicago River, St Patrick's Day |
| Location: | Chicago |
| Start Date: | March 16, 2024 |
| End Date: | March 16, 2024 |
| Trip Leader's Name: | Bharat Meshwani |
| Trip Level: | Intermediate |
| Weather: | Sunny, Very Windy |
| Water Level: | medium |
| Cubic Feet per Second: | 0 |
| Gauge Name: | N/A |
| Time on Water: | 4 Hours |
| Trip Distance (miles): | 5.5 |
| Number of Watercraft: | 6 |
| Number of People: | 6 |
| Put in Location: | REI Public Launch, North Branch, East Channel of Goose Island. |
| Take out Location: | Same as Put-in. |
| Round trip carshift time (min): | N/A |
| Contacts: | N/A |
| Report: | It was nice to have a small group PSCers join me at St. Patrick’s Day on Saturday March 16 for Emerald Green Chicago River paddle. Many other PSCers launched from the South branch near Lawrence Fisheries and met us at Wolf point. Also present were many familiar faces from pool sessions, CASKA, other clubs and many paddle groups. We launched at about 9:00 from REI public launch from the East channel on North branch near Goose Island and reached Wolf point (confluence) by about 9:30. There we had to wait for about 1 hour and 10 minutes for the dyeing process to complete. The dyeing process itself is worth seeing. It takes about 40 minutes for multiple boats to spray the dye in the river and then many speed boats go back and forth to disperse the dye to make it look very homogenous. The dyed river is a sight to see.
There were river police blocking everyone from entering the East branch. All boats, small and large waiting eagerly for “green” light to enter the dyed area. There were all kinds of police at the scene: Chicago River Police, Coast Guard, Chicago Fire Department, and Security Guards every hundred yards on both sides of river, Coast Guards members watching everything from the side, multiple drones surveying and the list goes on. And once the river police gave Thumsup, a flotilla of boats, both hand paddled and powered entered the area like an armada with crowds cheering and people yelling “Happy St. Patrick’s Day”. What an energy at that point, no Mountain Dew needed for a jolt. There were in all several hundred kayakers, standup paddle boarders, tandem canoeists, voyager canoeists (30 people in one boat) and many other hand paddled water crafts, not counting many power boats and tourist party boats. There were millions of people lined up on both sides of the river and on several bridges along the river cheering us. It was a big party scene, Chicago style. It also got chaotic at times as small paddled boats and large cruise boats were on a collision course. The rule was that large cruise boats have the right of way but crowd control in this case would be difficult. Paddlers had to pay attention to big boats and the wind drifting the small craft in all directions when the paddlers are busy taking selfies. Weather was sunny but very windy and it played a big factor in 2 capsizes that we saw later. I saw many paddlers without pfds, some just wearing jeans and green colored sweat shirts. We saw all kinds of kayaks, a few fishing kayaks, foot peddled kayaks, folding kayaks, inflatables and just about everything you can find. While all in my group were dressed with dry suits, I saw 2 kayaks from a tourist company become Titanics and the men fell in frigid waters during the return journey, hope they are OK. The wind would have been difficult for solo open canoes too. There were sightings of Nessie as well. Overall it was a great day, and a unique experience one should have when living in metro Chicago. |
| Report Author: | Bharat Meshwani |
| Report creation date: | 2024-03-17 15:29:55 |