The weather was pretty daunting, but we did this paddle anyway. The Kankakee River was high, fast and parts had my adrenaline running. There is a narrow stretch where the ripples seemed to approach Class II. The limestone dells were a site to see and the islands were large and would have been fun to explore in lower, slower water.
Mike and I put in at Bird Park in Kankakee. Our one oversight; We were expecting a third party to show who opted to cancel. Well, we had to improvise to do the shuttling. Because we each had only one boat, we didn’t use our J racks, so we ended up stuffing the kayaks in the respective mini SUVs.
We anticipated the trip to take roughly 4 hours, but took only around 2 because of the speed of the water.
The real adrenaline rush was after our paddle. We decided we earned a fat burger or hot dog. We asked a guy at the park whether there was a Sonic or A&W in Kankakee. There wasn’t but he offered to lead us to a hot dog joint a couple of miles away. Half way through our food, the tornado sirens went off. I was a bit freaked. There was no apparent place to take cover. There was nothing on the radio, which was surprising.
The sirens stopped and the weather cleared a bit, so we decided we would head home. On the way back, just a couple of miles farther than our take out spot, it was apparent a tornado had touched down. A very large tree had been uprooted and lie on the ground. Several other trees, in a line about 200 yards perpendicular to the road to the right, appeared as though they had exploded from the inside. Ripped apart.
The rest of the drive home was spent in a pretty thankful state of mind.
