Get Out `n Do It

Ottawa, IL (Day 3): Buffalo Range Shooting Park

Sep 7th, 2008

This would be my second time down to Buffalo Range Shooting Park. I really enjoy this park for several reasons.

1. The range’s are outdoors
2. There are 5 separate ranges, Rifle (50,75,100 yards), pistol (25), trap and skeet, clay range, and a plinking pit
3. The people are friendly
4. The facilities are clean and extremely safe
5. Soda and water are only $1.00!

Seriously, though…this is a great place to spend a day shooting – or even a half day.
There is no FOID card required, however, you need a FOID card to get your guns to the park!
You are not required to have one to shoot.

The one aspect I tolerate – it’s $25/person to get in for the day. So, plan to make it an all day outing.

Rachael and I both got some pretty good bruises from our new 12 gage. I have to say, though, Rachael did really well for her first time out with a 12. She hadn’t done so well with a 20 gage last winter in Arizona. She has almost always done better than me in the .22 target shooting.

Posted in: firearms, Illinois, shooting.

Ottawa, IL (Day 2): Paddling the Fox and Illinois Rivers

Sep 6th, 2008

by vmichael.

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This was a Meetup.Com organized event of a paddle Chad had organized, with a little help from me, a couple of weeks ago. The discovery of this route was motivated by the lack of desire to pay put-in or take-out fees to the greedy land and business owners along the Fox and Illinois Rivers…mostly the Fox River, though. The banks of the Fox River south of Yorkville and north Dayton are virtually ALL private property and everyone wants a small cut JUST to a boat in the water and be on your way. Hopefully, though not likely, the State will step up and provide public launches, but with the threat of state park closures already…this isn’t likely to happen.

Right at Dayton, though, there is HydroDam that seems to be extremely recreationally-friendly! During our first paddle a couple of weeks ago, one of the workers there was chatting with us about the facilities philosophy on access to the river. They really have and continue to work hard to keep access to the river open for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, etc. They allow portaging around the dam, as well.

This trip, we had a Chad, Randy, Julia, Kathleen and Ken (the 3 of which drove all together with Ken.) Julia and Kathleen stayed behind to watch the gear while us 4 guys dropped 3 vehicles at the take out.

It was a great day. The weather was beautiful. The dells along the edge near the put-in are always a nice ‘opener’… Then of course, paddling through downtown Ottawa and it’s older buildings is nice. Once we hit the Illinois River, it opens up quite a bit…Buffalo Rock is probably the highlight of the paddle.

It did threaten to rain once or twice, but fortunately, all we got was a drizzle during our lunch stop at a park in Ottawa.

Posted in: Illinois, paddling, rivers.

Ottawa, IL (Day 1): Backpacking Starved Rock

Sep 5th, 2008

by vmichael.

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This is my first trip out with my newly acquired Gregory backpack. I bought this pack from Chad (pictured) knowing that I will be venturing off places in the midwest and southwest this winter. I also bought a backpack for Rachael from REI. We have to pack hers up and take it out it test, also.

This hike was intended to discover any shortcomings of the bag or find any adjustments I needed to make before actually backpacking. The basic fit was there and REI was there to help with and verify that. I took the pack into the Oak Brook Terrace store and they were happy to size it, adjust it, load it up and let me walk around a bit.

I woke up the morning of this hike to the TV news covering the death of that 21 year old kid at Starved Rock the week before. Not a good sign. I was already nervous about how I would handle the pack on those trails anyway. However, I trust my instincts enough to realize that if it doesn’t seem like a smart thing to do, maybe I shouldn’t do it – like hanging over the edge of an 80 foot drop while hanging on the branch of a tree.

I had not loaded up 45 pounds at REI like I had the night before this hike. All my sleeping gear, including my hand-made fleece sleeping bag liner, 4 liters of water, which I think really pushed the weight over the top (I think that was about 8 pounds), and mostly just pack filler to try out the pack. . Chad and I met fairly early – about 10:30am or so – at the trail head for Illinois Canyon. Once we put our packs on and made some adjustments here and there, we were off.

The trail was a little muddy from the rain the day before, but manageable. There seemed to be more people than one might expect on a Friday morning. That’s cool – good for them! From the trailhead, the trail didn’t really seem like much, but once we hiked back a few hundred yards, the canyon walls began to creep upward on either side and the sun began shining through a bit here and there, making the scenery gradually more impressive.

We reached the end of Illinois Canyon to see a small waterfall, which later we found was not very impressive. We hiked back toward the trailhead but cut to the West and up a slope to reach the top of the canyon. We took that about 2.5 miles around the Kaskaskia and over into the end of the Ottawa Canyon, to witness a great waterfall.

By this time, I was quite used to my pack, though I was a tired. When we reached the bottom of Ottawa Canyon and began heading back, I refilled my water bottle from the Platypus and dumped out any of the remaining, uncessary (and HEAVY water). This made a pretty significant difference in weight and comfort. It wasn’t a lot, but I could definitely tell.

It was a great burn-in and I’m ready to go on an overnighter. I just have to work on lightening my gear and packing smarter.