The Friday guide.

Wilderness Chicago

A Different Look At The Area Is Just A Paddle-stroke Away

June 24, 1994|By Jill Riddell. Special to the Tribune.

The Midwest's mecca for canoeists and kayakers isn't located on the edge of the Minnesota Boundary Waters or on a rugged stream in upper Michigan, but rather in Chicago on the corner of Narragansett Avenue and Irving Park Road across from the Jewel.

In this ordinary urban neighborhood, the Chicagoland Canoe Base sells and rents canoes, kayaks and all the gear that goes with paddling sports.

"We're sitting here with the biggest secret in Chicago," says its owner, Ralph Frese. He isn't talking just about the Canoe Base, though discovering the shop full of wilderness gear is exciting in itself for outdoor enthusiasts. What Frese calls a big secret is Chicago's rivers, where Frese and many Canoe Base customers regularly paddle.

Many Chicagoans have forgotten the city's rivers even exist; most of those who remember have no idea they are now safe and clean enough to canoe in.

Though it's too polluted for swimming, the Chicago River is navigable by boats and provides an entirely different sort of experience from the typical paddle in a placid lake. "The average person has no idea what is out there," Frese says about local waterways. "There's a wilderness that most people have never suspected."

Trips along the Chicago River are rich in natural beauty and urban ironies. Here, it's mundane stuff to find a television set floating in the water with a rare heron perched on top of it, or a CTA bus rumbling overhead on a bridge while a beaver swims below.

"I'm astounded by the amount of stuff I see-herons, coots, grebes, all kinds of wildlife," says Christine Ronan, a graphic designer who regularly canoes Chicago waterways. She also believes it can give a fresh perspective on the familiar. "This city that you think you know so well looks completely different from the water than it does from land."

Two advantages of canoes over other kinds of boats (excluding kayaks, which can go wherever a canoe does) is that they are quiet, making it possible to sneak up close to wildlife, and they are easily portable. "You can throw a canoe on top of a car and take it anywhere," says Ronan.

Here is a list of suggested canoe trips. Keep in mind that if you have never canoed before, you should learn the basics in cleaner water where it won't matter if you happen to capsize. The first trip, a daylong urban canoe adventure, is for more expert paddlers with good stamina. The trips listed after it are suitable for beginners with some experience or those wanting shorter trips.

`From Baha'i to Baja'

Frese named this trip "From Baha'i to Baja" because it starts next to the Baha'i Temple in Wilmette and ends at the Baja Beach Club at North Pier Terminal in downtown Chicago (via the North Shore Channel, the Chicago River and the Ogden Slip). Assuming you float, dawdle a lot, and stop to get out a few times, expect the trip to take five to seven hours.

What You'll See: Fed by Lake Michigan water, the first part of the channel from Sheridan Road to Howard Street is fairly clean, the water a pleasant bluish green. On both sides, the banks are wooded, with spirea, yellow irises and an occasional wild rose blooming in June. Wildlife abounds. It's impossible to canoe this stretch without seeing long-legged wading birds, kingfishers and at least 100 mallard ducks. The trunks of cottonwoods show clear evidence of being chewed by beavers.

Yet the channel is unnatural, hydrologically speaking. Before European settlement, rivers flowed over Chicago's flat prairies in wide, shallow, changing paths, with only thin differences separating open rivers from marsh from wet prairie. Deep channels like the North Shore are strictly a human innovation of the last 150 years.

When you are on the river, it can be tough to tell where you are, even when you're crossing under bridges you may drive over every day, because they aren't marked to be seen by canoes. If you're ready for a break after an hour to an hour and a half, keep a lookout for the tops of flags peeking over the right-hand side of the bank. The shore is gentle and clear enough at this point to allow you to pull over to the side and climb up to street level. When you surface, you will find yourself at the corner of McCormick Boulevard and Dempster Street in Skokie. On the southwest corner is King David's Kosher Bakery with fresh bagels, challah and other baked goods. A couple of doors farther down is the 7-Day Discount Center, where you can pick up a hat, sunscreen or any sundry you forgot to bring. Past that is Ken's Diner and Grill with a real soda fountain.

Back in the channel, you will pass a Metropolitan Water Reclamation District treatment plant at Howard Street. Though the district has done a good job in recent years in improving the water quality in the river, there's still an odor at this point; sewage is sewage, after all, and the water is significantly more murky by this point.