Grab your paddle and enjoy Illinois' beautiful rivers. This comprehensive guidebook--the only one for Illinois--features 64 trips on 33 rivers. Rivers covered include Cashe, Des Plains, Embarras, Fox, Galena, Mackinaw, Middle Fork, and Spoon. This is the ultimate guide for canoe or kayak enthusiasts of all abilities.

Paddling Southern Wisconsin will guide you down some of the state's most alluring rivers, immersing you in its shifting landscape and infinite beauty.

From Chicago's magnificent lakefront to the mountain trails of the Shawnee National Forest, no state has more varied terrain for the cyclist than Illinois. Large, full-detail maps guide you confidently on city streets or prairie back roads, and concise, entertaining trail descriptions make your bicycle adventure come alive. Includes 60 rides for cyclists of all ability levels, tips on where to find water, snacks, lodging, repairs, fascinating notes that help you appreciate the nature and history along the trail, and much more.

Basketball, Football, and Baseball are all the popular sports that attract most people, particularly from a minority community in an urban area. This book attempts to raise awareness to everyone both inside and outside an urban area as to the unique serenity that paddling offers. The books requires you to consider paddling in your own neighborhood, as you might have a great place to paddle within 30 minutes or your home and not even know it. It details the love of the water in the life of Michael Taylor from childhood that carried into his adult life. It reveals the paddling community in the Chicago area and reviews the purpose and goals of these organizations. Lastly as a Christian the author reflects on the appreciation of nature and the blessings that God provides to all humanity that he sees when he is out on the water.The book is informational, it is funny, and it is spiritual. It is meant to inspire the reader to pick up the sport of paddling and become an advocate for the waterway systems in their community.

Newly revised guide to the best paddling trips in Iowa, contains trip ideas, and environmental, geological, and historic points of interest.

Parks and Recreation actor and Making It co-host Nick Offerman shares his humorous fulminations on life, manliness, meat, and much more in this New York Times bestseller. Growing a perfect moustache, grilling red meat, wooing a woman—who better to deliver this tutelage than the always charming, always manly Nick Offerman, best known as Parks and Recreation’s Ron Swanson? Combining his trademark comic voice and very real expertise in woodworking—he runs his own woodshop—Paddle Your Own Canoe features tales from Offerman’s childhood in small-town Minooka, Illinois—“I grew up literally in the middle of a cornfield”—to his theater days in Chicago, beginnings as a carpenter/actor and the hilarious and magnificent seduction of his now-wife Megan Mullally. It also offers hard-bitten battle strategies in the arenas of manliness, love, style, religion, woodworking, and outdoor recreation, among many other savory entrees. A mix of amusing anecdotes, opinionated lessons and rants, sprinkled with offbeat gaiety, Paddle Your Own Canoe will not only tickle readers pink but may also rouse them to put down their smart phones, study a few sycamore leaves, and maybe even hand craft (and paddle) their own canoes.

The very best Chicagoland spots for running, biking, kayaking, and other outdoor or gym activities are revealed by an ETHS graduate from the class of 1987.

Detailed maps, photography, trip descriptions, water conditions, wildlife, history

Adventures on rivers and at baseball stadiums, there is no set time to each experience, no two are alike in dimensions, each river and ballpark visit is excitedly anticipated, and (except for a few enclosed exceptions) weather conditions can impact the adventure. Canoeing and kayaking down a river and an afternoon at the ballpark are both important to our spiritual well-being. Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Detroit. All are major Midwestern cities that evolved on the banks of the rivers that flowed through them: the Allegheny, the Mississippi, the Chicago, the Milwaukee, the Cuyahoga, and the Detroit. Six rivers that were critical to six Midwestern towns in their discovery, development, transportation, commerce, and enjoyment. Paddling trips down each of the six rivers, at least the segment of the rivers flowing through these big cities, are wide, deep, slow-moving affairs —not your usual canoeing and kayaking rural, backwoods adventures—that combine the joy of paddling with fascinating glimpses of history and architecture on the riverbanks. With backgrounds provided by river tour guides and history books, we’ll share with you the unique view from the water, in words and photos, of each city’s riverside landmarks. One of the landmarks each city has in common is a major league ballpark either along or near the river. Coinciding with the 1800s industrial development of these six Midwest cities was the birth of our national pastime, the grand old game of baseball. Baseball was the balance needed to counteract our country’s often turbulent shift from a society of primarily family farmers to Industrial Revolution clock-punchers. The beauty of the hit-and-run, the green grass of a sunlit field, a ballpark frank and a cold beer, brought the same smile and serenity in the 1800s as they do today. To the River of No Return, Doc Fletcher

Following the success of their previous collaborations, Illinois Hiking and Backpacking Trails, Revised Edition and A Guide to Mountain Bike Trails in Illinois, Walter and George Zyznieuski offer this concise and handy resource for all outdoor enthusiasts interested in the outstanding nature centers and interpretive trails throughout Illinois. The 135 sites detailed in this illustrated guide are located in municipal and county parks, forest preserves, state parks, wildlife refuges, and the Shawnee National Forest. Sites range from the Apple River Canyon State Park in northwest Illinois to the Cache River State Natural Area in southern Illinois. This guide will assist individuals and groups in successfully planning visits to these areas by clearly identifying trails that are fairly short and well suited for families and those nature centers that provide hands-on experiences viewing wildlife and nature exhibits and participating in a nature program or activity. Also, those trails that are accessible to families with strollers, individuals with disabilities, and the elderly are identified with symbols and described throughout the book. Detailed descriptions of each center and trail are included along with directions, some maps and photographs, hours of operation, and contact information, including web sites, where available. Sixty-seven nature centers and interpretive trails are featured for northern Illinois, including Chicago Botanic Garden, Spring Valley Nature Sanctuary and Volkening Heritage Farm, The Morton Arboretum, the Chicago Portage National Historic Site, and the Black Hawk State Historic Site. For those interested in central Illinois, forty-one nature centers and trails are listed, including Kickapoo Creek Park, Chautauqua National Wildlife Refuge, Valentine Park, Salt Fork River Forest Preserve, Merwin Nature Preserve, Forest Park Nature Center and Adams Wildlife Sanctuary. Twenty-seven nature centers and trails are described for southern Illinois. Among these are Lusk Creek Canyon, Giant City State Park, Cache River State Natural Area, Ferne Clyffe State Park, Rim Rock, and Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge.