Ferson Creek

I and a friend from work ran this creek yesterday. I am a experienced paddler from down south, but my buddy had never been before. I hopped in my play boat and put him in my RPM. The creek had many down trees and strainers, but I found it kind of fun. We only had to portage 3 or 4 times with only one major portage. The only dangerous spot was a little after entering the woods, you go through a little class one rapid that is pretty shallow, but surfable, then a little further down you hear some real water and there is a little walk bridge over the top. Stop before the bridge on river left and portage past the bridge around the right side of the pond and drop back into the river where you see easy access. You can go onto the bridge and see why I said to portage. The last drop was really big for what I was expecting (I mean we are in the suburbs). I would love to go to some of these rich people's homes and ask for access to some of the play holes also. Lastly, check the take out at the park, we did not and thought there was a bridge and missed it. We paddled to randall road and had to hitchhike back to the park from there. Overall, I loved it!

This is the largest and final drop before the park. This is a scouting picture around 150 CFS. I ran Ferson @ 350 which seemed med/high runnable and bet you could get away with flows as low as 150.

Minimum suggested level is 70 cfs. Max level known run (mostly through the woods) is aprox. 3500 cfs.

A good put in is at Bolcum Road in St. Charles. A good take out is at the Leroy Oakes County Park in St. Charles (right after the biggest drop on the creek, about a 5' footer).

A great resource for this creek and numerous others is Bob Tyler's book 'Canoeing adventures in Northern Illinois'