Hammond, IN, to Joliet, IL.

After a decent night’s sleep with cooler temperatures and only a couple of train horns, we left Hammond Marina at 7:30 AM and ventured out onto Lake Michigan. The light northeast wind  stirred up a gentle swell that bounced our little boat but was not unpleasant. We pointed the bow for the foggy Chicago skyline 15 miles away, and eventually could make out the ferris wheel on Navy Pier, which was a perfect visual waypoint. We soon arrived at the Chicago Harbor Lock, who put us right through for the one-foot drop into the Chicago River. Upon exiting the lock, there was a transformation from the quiet lake to an extremely busy waterway. We immediately had to dodge a firefighting boat, a kayak class and three tour boats (one conducting man overboard drills). Despite the traffic, taking our own boat through Downtown Chicago was a bucket list item and an amazing experience!

Navy Pier

Can you find Trump Tower?

There are 18 bridges in Downtown Chicago

After passing through the main population and business center of the city. the scene was commercial, with tows, barges and workboats of all kinds, often moored on both sides of the river, narrowing the available channel. Eventually the Chicago River became the 28-mile Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, completed in 1900 to replace the Illinois & Michigan (I&M) Canal, the original waterway connecting Lake Michigan to the Des Plaines and Illinois Rivers. See our March 1 post for more info on the waterway and our route: 2025 Planning: The Illinois Waterway. After a 40-foot drop at Lockport Lock, we merged with the Des Plaines River just upstream of Joliet, IL. After 55-miles on yet another day of scorching heat and brutal humidity, we tied up to the free wall at Bicentennial Park, across the river from the city police station and a Harrah’s Casino. Map link: Joliet, IL

From our chartplotter—you can see the I&M
Canal, Chicago Ship and Sanitary Canal and
Des Plaines Rivers side-by-side

Today we passed under the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe railroad bridge, which at 19 feet and change, is the lowest fixed bridge on America’s Great Loop—if you can’t get under it, you can’t do the Loop. Near Romeoville, we transited through the Electric Dispersal Barrier System, which is an underwater, electric fence to keep invasive aquatic species, primarily Asian carp, out of the Great Lakes. 

There were very few recreational vessels out. One notable one was a northbound Looper that we met twice in the autumn of 2023 in Alabama, who snapped this nice pic of Dragonfly.

After securing the boat in Joliet, we walked along the river through a lovely park, then ate dinner at a Korean restaurant, YURA NUNA, both enjoying beef bulgogi rice bowls and ice-cold lemonade. Joliet, IL, population 150,000, is the third-largest city in Illinois, after Chicago and Aurora. It is named after Father Louis Joliet, who paddled here in 1673 with Father Jacques Marquette and camped nearby. The first Dairy Queen opened here in 1940, although the building is now a small church. Actors Melissa McCarthy and Nick Offerman were born here. And the opening scene of the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers was shot at the Old Joliet Correctional Facility, which is now a tourist attraction. A replica of the 1974 Dodge Monaco “Bluesmobile” can be found at a truck stop three miles south of town, atop a 20-foot pole.

Bonus Question: What stretchy fabric is an anagram of its primary function? (answer at end of post)

Bonus Question Answer: “Spandex” is an anagram of “expands.” Introduced in 1959 by DuPont under the trade name Lycra, spandex was developed to replace rubber girdles. Its fibers can stretch more than 500% without breaking and return to their original length.