Fox (Illinois R. trib.)

D) Yorkville: Marge Cline Whitewater Course (PnP)(Bicentennial Riverfront Park)

Trip Reports

Daniel Murphy

Jun 19, 2021

The city-owned building at the top of the run, formerly occupied by the YakShack, is no longer there; the City of Yorkville demolished it several seasons ago. Now, there is just a concrete pad. However, Yakshackonline.com continues to operate as a web-based business, and offers beginner whitewater (and recreational) kayaking lessons, providing all equipment using American Canoe Association certified instructors. The city does provide a portable changing room and porta-potties (although people sometimes confuse the purpose of the two), as well as a cold-water shower (when they eventually turn it on.) The course/park is also equipped with an AED (near the bottom of the run - look for the red 'EMERGENCY' pole) and a lightning warning system.

Robert Szczesniak

Sep 17, 2018

Run on 9/1/18 - level was in lower 2000s and slowly dropping. Beginning of the day the first drop was gone. The second two were small drops with waves. Both were pretty narrow, small spots for front surf, but nothing stable. The middle wave train was still fun. The bottom routes were wavy, good and splashy but nothing to hang around with. The eddies and the eddy lines were quite strong.

I was with a small group of beginners (with gear help from the yak shack). This level was fine for working on basic moves - peel outs, eddies, ferries, and paddling through waves. The eddy lines made for a lot of swims, but everyone had a good time.

There wasn't much for advanced work. The level dropped a little by the end of the day. The first drop started to be a ripple and somethings started to show that would fun as the level continued to drop, but nothing there yet.

Local we talked to said this 2000-2500 range is a little bland.

Robert Szczesniak

Jul 18, 2018

Run around 1000cfs
Entrance was a flat section of froth. easy to attain and good for practicing moving back and forth across a wave. Perhaps someone of more skill could do some more interesting moves here, but not me.

Second wave was not much other than somewhere to work on moving water moves. The current and eddy lines were a little squirrely here, Through out the course there was a lot of boil lines, flow coming up from the bottom.

Play wave was fun. There was a good amount of height and flow, the sweet spot was pretty small. But after a while I was able to figure it out and some vertical moves were possible, though I couldn't get any spins to work. This would be a good step up from entrance - bigger, faster, but not too much pushier.

Mid wave was a big wave train - fun but nothing to stick to. Same with the Run out through the bottom - big wave train.

I spent a lot of time up at entrance and play wave - below that was just riding the wave trains to get out and go back to the top. The bottom section would be great at this level for eddy and ferry practices with different speeds of water.

Daniel Murphy

Aug 30, 2013

Thanks to fellow ACA instructor Jeff B. for providing a good description of the Marge Cline Whitewater Park: 'It is better than 'Better than Nothing.'' This is evidenced by the fact that folks have driven four hours from St. Louis to paddle it. When I asked, they told me it's worth the drive when they have a whitewater jones going and the St. Francis isn't running. Living a mere 30 minutes away, it is a great place for locals like me to practice basic skills. People often drive up to two hours to paddle the run, but those living six hours away may find the trip not worth it.

There has been great debate as to what rating this run is. Using the rating guidance contained on the AW site, I would offer my opinion that it is a Class I+ run. Why? People who intend to simply bomb it still require some corrective strokes to stay in the current. However, the squirrelly eddies and difficult waves may elevate certain features to Class II if attempting to do more than simply bomb the course. I've seen more than one Class IV+ paddler roll back up with a surprised look on their face, as if to say 'what the hell was that?' when they let their guard down.

Being an engineered course it is relatively very safe; however, folks should not forget it is still a wild river and swimmers should exercise due caution (i.e. defensive swimming) if they find themselves out of their boats.

The course begins at 'entrance wave' (none of these are official, but are what I call them) that at low flows can be used for surfing and flat spinning. At flows above around 1200-1500 the wave washes out. It is usually too shallow to do anything vertical. It actually becomes more retentive as flow drops. Just down stream of entrance is an island. River left of the island is 'second wave' which, depending on flow, my allow some flat surfing. On river right of the island is 'play wave', a feature that is playable and changes its dynamics over a wide range of flows. People have been known to throw a loop here, but it takes some effort to find the sweet spot. The left and right flows come together and form into 'middle wave', just upstream of the pedestrian bridge that crosses over the run. The 'middle' is a Class I feature that occasionally offers some surf opportunity if one can catch one of the sweet spots. After the middle another island splits the run. Although the river right channel was supposed to the challenge route, it offers not much for the whitewater paddler. The river left channel also offers little except the opportunity to practice catching eddies. The bottom offers bow stall and stern squirt opportunities.

The Marge Cline course is used by the Chicago Whitewater Association for Beginner I+ courses, and also by private outfitters such as The Yak Shack and Geneva Kayak as a venue for lessons. However, the best use of the course is not as a teaching venue, but as a learning venue: Those who have taken a beginner course and are proficient in self-rescue will find the challenging eddy lines and variations of waves a great place to develop skill and build proficiency. A beginner who takes a few trips to Yorkville, particularly with the assistance of a mentor, will find their skill and confidence rise rapidly.

The run is open year round. Although the river freezes over up and downstream, water flows through the run continuously. Even when flow is so low that no water flows over the accompanying dam, water will flow through the run. As always, paddle with a buddy.