Happy Canoe Year!
5 Jan
It seemed natural enough to link to a story headlined “Happy Canoe Year” for our first Canoeing News post of 2009.
The story, HERE, in Illinois’ Lake Forester reports on the 23rd annual New Year’s Day canoe trip down the North Branch of the Chicago River. The event, which began as a modest outing Ralph and Rita Frese made with another couple, has gradually evolved into a gathering of some 200 paddlers.
The Forest Preserve of Cook County now sponsors the trip and the North Branch route is now known as the Ralph Frese Water Trail. Frese is the owner of the Chicagoland Canoe Base and is a life-long conservation advocate.
There’s a nice profile of Frese, HERE, in a 2007 issue of Chicago Wilderness.
This year, canoeists and kayakers braved chilly temperatures — it’s winter in Chicago after all! — and unseasonably high water on their 6.5 mile paddle from below the Skokie Lagoons to the Linne Woods Forest Preserve in Morton Grove, in suburban Chicago.
You can read Dave Watts report on the trip, HERE, at the Prairie State Canoeists web-page.
