Name: -- Lee Butler

Date: -- Wednesday Oct 12, 2005 10:00am to 12:30p,

Weather: -- partly/sunny, 65 degrees, NO breeze

Body of water: -- Pecatonica River

Water Temperature: -- ? John said it was cold (John fell in the river!)

Location: -- Winslow-Brewster Landing to West McConnell Road Bridge

Leader: -- Lee Butler

Co-Leader: -- Joe Ginger

Water level: medium

Time on water: -- 2 ½ hours

Length of trip: -- 7 miles

Number of craft: -- 6 kayaks

Number of people: -- 6

Water rating: -- beginner

Put-in directions: -- Brewster Landing – Stephenson County Property - Brewster Landing is 1 mile east of Winslow on Winslow Road. Or, 5 miles west of Rte 26 on Winslow Road. Look for the small Shelter House Roof on the south side of the road. A small "Brewster Landing" road sign marks the site. There is a cement boat ramp at this location.

Takeout directions: -- McConnell Road Bridge – Stephenson County Property - McConnell Road Bridge is located ¼ mile west of McConnell on McConnell Road Bridge. The lane and grassland on the southeast side of this bridge is public and owned by Stephenson County. The take-out site is a piece of carpet 300 feet beyond the bridge, river left.

Difficulty of carshift: -- easy

From Brewster Landing-PUT-IN to West McConnell Road Bridge-TAKE-OUT

1. Turn right onto Winslow Road, go about 1 ½ mile to North Hulbert Road.

2. Turn right onto North Hulbert Road, go about 5 miles to West McConnell Road.

3. Turn right onto West McConnell Road, go about ½ mile to West McConnell Road Bridge.

4. Turn left before the Bridge to the Parking Area and ‘carpeted!’ boat ramp

5. The ‘carpeted!’ boat ramp is about 300 feet downstream from the bridge on the left.

From West McConnell Road Bridge Parking Area-TAKE-OUT to Brewster Landing-PUT-IN

1. Turn right onto West McConnell Road, go about ½ mile to North Hulbert Road.
2. Turn left onto North Hulbert Road, go about 5 miles to Winslow Road.
3. Turn left onto Winslow Road, go about 1 ½ miles to Brewster Landing on the left.

Time for carshift: --- 45 minutes, we did the car shift at 9:30, as scheduled

Names of carshifters: -- Lee Butler & Judy Hook

Special contacts: campgrounds, permission, names, addresses, phone numbers

 None required.

Report: Scenery, wildlife, side-trips, obstacles, points of interest, lunch stop details

The weather report for this paddle was not very good; cool, cloudy, drizzle, light rain. But we decided to paddle anyway. The weather turned out perfect.

Paddlers; Lee, Joe, Rod, John, Melinda, & Anna

This was Anna’s 2^nd paddling experience. She did very well.

During the carshift, John started the launch early and fell in the river. When I returned from the carshift, John had completed his clothing change. John is a very experienced paddler and just made a dumb mistake. I hope his digital camera survives the bath!

We sometimes paddled 2 abreast sharing conversations. Sometimes, 3 abreast. And near the end of the trip, we were 6 abreast paddling down this wide river.

At the West McConnell Road Bridge take-out, John and Melinda decided to paddle 8 more miles down to the next takeout.