Past and Present Memories of Floating the Illinois River

While we sat in the motor home in the rain the last two days, we had time to plot our strategy for getting to float the Illinois River. We missed out on the float we planned two days ago using our motor home as a shuttle vehicle. But we found a great company that only charged us $10 to shuttle the two of us and our kayak up the river.  We've talked to float companies all over North America, and we can tell you that the All-American Float company near Tahlequah made us a great deal. They drove us north to a private put-in site and even let us use their equipment to inflate our boat. At All-American we also purchased our $1 permit needed to float this river. Thanks!

We had to wait for a band of showers to pass the area before we got on the water on this cloudy morning. We're heading south and east through the Sparrowhawk Wildlife Management Area of this section of the Illinois River. 

We have floated on the Illinois River several times in our life. The first was when we were freshmen in college and had been dating for less than a year. We went with the college church group, and the two of us shared a boat for the first time. That was forty years and several hundred shared boat rides ago! So this river brings back some sweet memories to us.

We also remember a float trip with our little sons between us in our canoe. It was a church trip again, with our Sunday school class and our young families floating on the Illinois River together.


The last time we floated on the Illinois River was in 2009. We were class parents for our youngest son's class, and we rafted with the seniors that spring. That year we floated in rafts and we had a big group in our boat. We have to say that today was a much calmer float experience without the company of a whole class of 18-year-olds accompanying us. In fact, on this cloudy week day in May, we didn't see even one other boat on the river with us. On a sunny weekend a little later in the summer, this would be a completely different experience.

About half-way through our nine-mile float, we passed by "elephant rock." It takes a little imagination, but we could see the long elephant trunk half-buried in the water, and the squinty eye of the side view of this elephant head.

While the first part of the float was completely cloudy, we saw little patches of blue sky as the scenery flattened during the second half.

The only other humans we saw today were two guys on the bank fishing with their bows and arrows. We watched one unsuccessful shot, and they hadn't caught any when we floated by. They yelled a greeting as we went by, and pointed out that they also brought fishing poles if the arrows weren't successful. This tall and skinny great white heron was also hoping for a good fishing day.

With no other kayakers on the river to scare them off the limbs, the turtles were dry as they tried to catch some warming rays today.

This part of Oklahoma is so green and lush, and all that green made a good background for this blue heron.

He let us get quite close before he took to the air. Denisa always tries for the in-flight picture, but seldom gets a good one.

The black vultures were having a convention on the banks of the Illinois River. They welcomed other birds with open wings.

If you can get past their ugly old wrinkly heads, these are quite majestic birds with their 5-foot wingspan.

When we talked to the ranger on the phone, we found that the floods of 2019 had changed the course of the Illinois River considerably. He said that they had 20 different "high-water events" last year, causing shore erosion and losing some big trees.

At times it took some fancy steering to get through the maze of downed trees in clogged sections.

The ranger also told us that presently the river was one foot above normal. The current was flowing at a comfortable 3 miles per hour. That's a nice floating speed, and we only had to row to steer around occasional debris.

We know the precise flow of the river because it took us exactly three hours to make our nine-mile trip back to where our car was waiting at All-American Floats. We had a great time wandering God's wonders as we floated down the Illinois River!

We took plenty of pictures of the Illinois River for the blog today. We wish we could include pictures of each of the past float trips that showed our life progression and this river. Those pictures would take us from two single college students in love, to a young married family of four, to a couple in a crowded raft readying to be empty-nesters. But the pictures are still vivid in our minds. Today we add this new set of river picture memories. We're back to just the two of us in the boat, 40 years older but still young-at-heart and still in love!