PassageMaker - March 2010

WATERLINES

There’s a map on the wall of my office, a Weems & Plath publication, depicting the inland waterways of North America. Navigable rivers, locks and dams, even historic canals that might one day be restored are all here, fanning out across the United States and Canada like the well-developed veins in some pioneer’s forearms and hands.

Looking at them, I am reminded of the vital role that travel by water played in the exploration and commercial development of our continent, and the extent to which modern-day cruisers still follow the paths our ancestors blazed. What trawler owner wouldn’t want to explore the waterways and surrounding country once discovered by the likes of Champlain, Lewis and Clark, or Ponce de León? The possibilities are endless, and dazzling.

I am fascinated by those possibilities and find myself lost in an imaginary progress up and down long stretches of coastline protected by barrier islands, around countless river bends leading me into the heartland, or searching for well-protected sloughs and hurricane holes and the peace and quiet they can offer. Recently, however, I’ve been focusing on a short stretch of water in the Midwest: specifically, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, which connects Lake Michigan to the Illinois River. Disregarding for a moment its heavily industrialized

Endless Possibilities nature in some stretches, this canal is a well-worn path for those who would circumnavigate the eastern half of the United States or, more appropriately, join the growing list of cruisers who aspire to “do the Loop”—the Great Loop, of course.