Chicago River Water Trails - Bunker Hill to River Park

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Skill level: beginner to intermediate depending on water level & deadfall

Length: 6.55 miles

Directions: Enter Bunker Hill Forest Preserve on the west side of Caldwell Ave. (Rt. 14) at Tonty St. in Chicago.  Make the first left turn into the south parking lot and go to the end of the lot.  Follow the path at the south end of the turnaround to the footbridge over the North Branch.  Put-in on either side of the footbridge.

The take-out is on river right just upstream of the control dam that marks the end of the natural section of the North Branch in River Park.  A longer trip can be had by portaging around the dam and continuing 2.28 miles downstream to the Clark Park Canoe Launch.

Note: The first section of this trip passes through the 1,600 acres granted to Billy Caldwell (also known as the “Sauganash”).  Caldwell was one of the three Pottawatomi signers of the 1830 Treaty of Chicago which removed all local Indian tribes to west of the Mississippi River.

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