Sunday Aug. 18, 2013 

We decided to stay another day in Ottawa. The river gets very busy with weekend boaters. We took our bikes out and found a very nice bike trail called I&M Canal Passage. This route was first used as a canal in the 1800’s which was hand dug. In the 1900’s it was no longer needed because of the railroad and other transportation on the rivers. It was then turned into a walking/bike trail.

In the afternoon we took our rubber raft out for a ride up the Fox River which flows into the Illinois River at Ottawa. During our ride we saw our first Asian carp. Several of them started jumping all around the dinghy. Thankfully none of them jumped in. They are a very thin skinned fish and make a really big mess if they hit your boat. I tried to get a picture but they were too fast. The best I could get was the tail just before it fell back in the water. I didn’t like how close they came so we turned around. We will leave that adventure for another day.

 

 

The area to the right of the trail used to be the canal.

(it has filled in a little over the years)

 

This is as close as I could get to

capturing a picture of the Asian carp.