Name: -- Lee Butler

Date: -- Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Weather: -- sunny, 70 degrees, slight NW breeze

Body of water: -- Pecatonica River

Location: -- Brewster Landing to West McConnell Road Bridge

Leader: -- Lee Butler

Co-Leader: -- Joe Ginger

Water level: medium

Time on water: -- 3 hours, 10am to 1pm

Length of trip: -- 6.73 miles

Number of craft: -- 3

Number of people: -- 3

Water rating: -- beginner

Put-in directions: -- 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 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: --- 20 minutes, we did the car shift at 9:30, as scheduled

Names of carshifters: -- Lee Butler and Joe Ginger

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

 None -The land next to the river at Brewster Landing and West McConnell Road Bridge is owned by Stephenson County and open for public ‘day’ use.

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

We intended to pick up that plastic 55 gallon barrel that we have been seeing on this river segment. On previous trips we would spot it in the brush and set it free to float downstream. You never know. That barrel could have hazzardous chemicals lurking inside!

We spotted the infamous barrel a little over 5 miles downstream. It was hung up on the second dam at Fishers Mill. The barrel was pushed to continue down the river. Once we were free of the riffles, a rope was tied to the barrel and it was towed. The barrel did not tow very good. Joe followed the barrel and pushed it with his kayak. At least we had a tail wind!!

We were prepared to call the county enviornmental group to haul this barrel away.

The length of the tow was 1.4 miles! We tried to be very careful of this potential hazzardous container. We dragged it up on the cement ramp and noticed a fluid coming out near the bottom. ‘River water’! After the river water ran out of the barrel, it was loaded on the kayak trailer, and returned to Freeport for proper recycling…..