I&M Canal Trail conditions?

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Permalink Reply by Eli on August 26, 2014 at 12:19pm

I spoke to a woman at the park office a little while ago and this is what she told me:

• There is a trail closure between Buffalo Rock and Utica where the trail is washed out. This is the same as last year. Here is a picture of how the bottom of the washout looked when I was there in November: https://www.flickr.com/photos/56883654@N04/10813370736/. At that time I was able to roll my bike across the planks that someone had set up and pass through with no problems, just had to walk my bike maybe 50 feet total. Of course, it's possible that the water is higher now.
• There is some kind of collapse just west of Morris--also the same as last year. You have to detour on the streets for about a mile or two between downtown Morris and the trail access point at Gebhard Woods.
• There may be flooding west of Marseilles right now due to the heavy rain, and this may require leaving the trail and taking the streets. This one is new. I don't think she said that it was definitely flooded, only that it is prone to flooding in the kind of rain we've been having. I'm not sure how long the flooded or potentially flooded segment lasts.

I'm planning to ride the trail this week and I'll update this thread with the current info afterwards.

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Permalink Reply by Cody Wolcott on August 26, 2014 at 1:13pm

I was out there a month ago.  There were a lot of downed trees past Ottawa, and a bridge that was out. There wasn't anything you couldn't lift your bike across though. There were also a few wet sections that can sneak up on you, but nothing dangerous.  The trail was closed past Buffalo Rock, but there are some local roads you could use for that section. You could supplement a lot of the trip with local roads if it's gotten worse since.  

Closer to the city, the MWRD has some construction going on before Lockport.  It's only a mile or two, and leads you down a deserted, bumpy road until the trail resumes.  

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Permalink Reply by Eli on August 31, 2014 at 10:13am

Update: there was significant mud between Marseilles and Ottawa, and worse mud between Buffalo Rock and Utica (mostly toward the Buffalo Rock end of this stretch). Possibly some of the latter was on the section that is supposedly closed due to the washout, but there were no signs indicating that it was closed anywhere, so I'm not sure which parts are closed and which aren't.

The mud is a thick clay mud and we had to remove wheels several times to clear it from our fenders. Unless you have a mountain bike I would recommend taking streets between the Buffalo Rock access point and Utica.

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Permalink Reply by Alex Z on September 1, 2014 at 11:49am

The opposite of my experience, where the signs said "closed" without explanation and I simply ignored them without incident. :/

Eli said:

Update: there was significant mud between Marseilles and Ottawa, and worse mud between Buffalo Rock and Utica (mostly toward the Buffalo Rock end of this stretch). Possibly some of the latter was on the section that is supposedly closed due to the washout, but there were no signs indicating that it was closed anywhere, so I'm not sure which parts are closed and which aren't.

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Permalink Reply by Reboot Oxnard on September 4, 2014 at 7:14am

The section between Utica and Buffalo Rock State Park has been closed for a couple of years, though the scary warning signs are gone - mostly torn up to be used the help ford the washout. We rode this section on 2014-09-03, two days after some fairly serious rain, and it was very passable. A few sections were slightly muddy, a few more were damp and a few were dry but a little rough/rutted. Mostly, however, it was smooth sailing. The section isn't being maintained and is starting to get overgrown (a plus in my book, but whatever) so be prepared to have the reedgrass reaching out to grab you and you'll have to get off your bike to cross the washed out section.

No mountain lions in Illinois, right?

A view of the Utica washout from the bottom:

Crossing the wash. The scary warning signs that noted the trail closing have been repurposed:

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Permalink Reply by Brett Miller on July 10, 2015 at 11:03am

I'm planning to ride from Chicago to Starved Rock in a couple of weeks. I'm wondering if any Chainlinkers have any updates about trail conditions and/or closures along the way. I'm riding a hybrid (700 x 35c), so I can handle some adventure, but wanted to know if there were known spots where I'll need to modify my route.

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