Recon - Isle A La Cache to Division St

I checked out the Isle A La Cache Museum and canoe launch this morning.






  The launch is very accessible with about a 25 yard walk from the car.  The picture below is a view  upstream from the canoe launch.

I talked with a volunteer at the museum about canoeing in the area and she said that people did short trips from here to a "take out" on Division St maybe a mile or two downstream.  She described it as a rustic take out. 

It seems that there was an oil spill about 1/2 mile upstream from the museum at the local refinery.  A pipe broke under ground and the leak was contained, however the company put up oil booms about 100 yards upstream from the Isle A La Cache canoe launch as a precautionary measure.  There is NO evidence that any oil made it into the river.  This means however that in order to make it to Cache's canoe take out, you would have to cross over the booms and I am not sure how doable this is.....





So I headed to Division St to check out the take out.  It is a very overgrown single track trail from the road(dead ends at the bridge, take out is upstream from the bridge)





Take out point @ Division before the bridge:

Side note:  I'm not sure how this area is still called a "Nature Preserve" when you see signs like this, what the hell are we doing to this planet!  





I ran across this online while trying to find out what was hazardous:

"there were signs posted along the south side of the parking lot/driveway stating (paraphrased) "Possible Hazardous Materials – No Trespassing”. Rest assured, I questioned the WCFPD about the signs; they confirmed that another government entity had placed those signs in the wrong area and that entity has yet to remove them. The Lockport Prairie is confirmed to be a safe place to visit." 

source link 




So it looks like a trip from Columbia Woods to Isle A La Cache is a very doable option (depending on the oil spills status), it seems south of Cache starts to be a little more questionable and (fun?), as the take out is pretty rough and the water levels would play a major role in how your trip went.  This is the area called Fishnet Rapids.  Water levels were low(rocky) currently, but this area would be a lot of fun with a little higher flow rate, not to mention a little dangerous with a serious rain storm!