Tom & Anna Croak joined the Lake County Forest Preserve District's Des Plaines River Stewardship volunteers, cleaning up the Des Plaines River from Rte 60 to Lincolnshire's Rivershire Park. The water level was very low: 17cfs at Gurnee, 41cfs at Lincolnshire. We haven't seen the river this low in years, which means lots of treasures were recovered... There were 10 tires, several large pieces of a blue pickup truck, a ceramic moonshine jug (FULL!... of river mud, that is...), a small stop sign, part of a toddler-sized picnic table, pieces of deck chairs, a 10lb weight from a barbell set, and quite a mound of the "normal" river debris. Pictures are available, if anyone's interested. No coconuts this time, though... kind of odd...
Some great news... the small dam at the Half Day/Wright Woods trail crossing is coming out at this time! The contractor was out in the river with heavy equipment, tearing it down piece by piece. Once the concrete is broken up, they'll start removing the sheet piling. We had to portage around the work area, but I'm okay with that.
After we were done, we stopped at Half Day Brewing for a late lunch/early dinner and a beer. It was a long day...