Lower Illinois Bayou Dangerous

[rollo_cd26]

Warning! Warning!Please read! This is not a joke!
Trap on the Illinois Bayou: Scottsvile to DoverMaybe this is already known, maybe not. There is a blind trap on the Illinois Bayou 1.5 miles above the Dover bridge. Trees in the water have formed an impassible and dangerous block in swift water that cannot be seen until it is too late to avoid! This is a death trap. I barely avoided loss of kayak and life last weekend. Help must cross swift, deep and tree blocked water to attempt rescue. Lower water level will not eliminate this hazard! Escape is difficult. Please warn others!

Tom Rolniak
Russellville
8rigel7@suddenlink.net
4794306152

[Tim Eubanks]

Several on upper as well.

[EMTyak]

Tom
Could you give a more detailed description? There were 2 portages needed last week at 7.5', both above "house rock".

Is the strainer you are describing above or below Hector bridge (hwy27)?

The section he is describing is way below hector. It's below Scottsville but above dover (highway 7)

[Tim Eubanks]

Got my Dover and Hector mixed up. That's what happens when I'm sleep deprived and a cup of Joe short. Hope I don't have to operate any machinery today.

[rollo_cd26]

The problem area is between the Scottsville and Dover bridges about 1.5 miles above the Hwy 7 bridge north of Dover. Many would consider the Illinois Bayou a benign river and float it casually. We certainly thought so last Saturday and only had to portaged around an obvious strainer earlier. I was the first of 5 boats into this rapid and told my daughter to hang back. As I approached the block, it became very obvious that there was no way over, under, around or through. A large log about 6 feet long blocks the passage in swift and deep water. There is no place to land as the bank is sheer on river right. I crashed into a trash pile as my kayak swung around and filled from the rear. I was lucky to escape my boat but had only a small ledge to cliimb on to. I managed to pull my boat onto the small ledge and escape over the trash pile using rope to pull my kayak. The approach is blind and this place could fool novice and experienced paddlers alike. Entrapment is likely. It is dangerous.

[Donald]

At higher water there is a path to the left but below 7' there is not enough water flowing that way. There is an eddy on river right, about 10' up from the log, that you can catch if you get to the log unawares. I should have mentioned this info a couple of weeks ago when we first ran this and found the log blocking the river, it just didn't occur to me because it seems like we are the only ones that ever do this section. One thing to keep in mind about this section is that it always seems like there are some fairly dangerous hazards they just move with each new flood. We helped a group of 4 last October after they had dumped twice and then wrapped one of the 2 canoes they were in. This was about 4miles down from the putin so they still had a long walk to go to Dover. Fortunately those hazards moved with the last flood, but of course new ones developed.

Don

[Cowper]

Thanks for posting this.

[Clif]

Found out last night some friends went under a different strainer on the bayou. She left a lot of skin. Thankful they did not lose more. DANGEROUS STRAINERS ON THE ILLINOIS

[Donald]

Next time we paddle the lower bayou I will make a note of the GPS mileage and post the hazards. The downed trees on the Scottsville to Dover run move on about every other flood so anyone paddling this section needs to keep their wits about them. For whatever reason the creek seems to narrow down more than on the Hector bridge to bridge run and grow a lot more strainers. I have paddled both quite a lot and there are always more hazards on the lower run. This might be good info to add to the ozarkpages description.

http://www.ozarkpages.com/cgi-bin/crfind.pl?IllinoisB" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Don