DuPage, Illinois, US

Shorewood: Hammel Woods to W.Story St. (up to 10.2 miles)

Gauge Information

Name	Range	Difficulty	Updated	Level
DU PAGE RIVER AT SHOREWOOD, IL
usgs-05540500	150 - 1000 cfs	I(II)	01h18m	297 cfs (rc= 0.2 )
	Perhaps low-to-moderate (for whitewater). We welcome your input. Leave a comment or 'report'. Gauge (324 sq.mi. drainage) is on this reach, thus very accurately portrays flows.

River Description

A flatwater stretch is punctuated by a couple of dams which could provide some play at certain levels, far more often may prove a serious hazard to the unwary. Notably, at levels around 1000 cfs, the dam at Hammel Woods may look rather easy to the inexperienced boater (it looks like only a couple inches to maybe a foot of drop). What the novice boater may not notice is how far downstream the water 'boils back' toward the face of the dam. Anyone out of their boat (or anyone in their boat who fails to stay upright and paddle all the way through the boil) will be sucked back toward the dam and will be recirculated with little likelihood of getting out. There is a 'chute' tight to the left bank which could be the best runnable spot at a fair variety of levels, but again, we do not recommend running any low-head dam without full knowledge, awareness of the danger, and proper safety precautions (persons on shore with throw-ropes).

Reportedly, the forest preserve police have ticketed folks who paddle over the dam.

 Other than this, we have very little detailed, first-hand information regarding the rest of this reach. If you have run this reach, please help out your fellow boaters by going to the "Comment" tab and using the "Add a Comment" button which appears there (for all registered, logged-in users of this website).