West Council Hill Road to Galena:
A hinge trip that comprises two opposites – first, a rugged and ragged landscape teeming with bluffs, rock outcrops, and galloping riffles, then a kind of makeover landscape approaching the quaint town of Galena with its levee and decorative buildings set atop hills, where the once-singing river is now a silent ditch – this leg of the Galena River feels like a mash-up of two distinctly different segments.
Rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Trip Report Date: April 15, 2024
Skill Level: Beginner-Intermediate (on account of riffles and deadfall to avoid running into)
Class Difficulty: Riffles
Gradient:
≈4′ per mile
Gauge Recorded on this Trip:
Buncombe: ht/ft: 3.1 | cfs: 101
Recommended Levels:
We recommend this level. Ideal levels are between 3.1′ and 3.6′. Anything below 3′ will be scrape city.
Put-In:
W. Council Hill Road
GPS: 42.47675, -90.40637
Take-Out:
Public boat launch off Main Street, Galena, Illinois
GPS: 42.41014, -90.43111
Time: Put in at 11:45a. Out at 2:30p.
Total Time: 2h 45m
Miles Paddled: 9.25
Wildlife:
Hawks, sandhill cranes, bald eagles, turkey vultures, countless turtles (painted and soft shell), a tiny snake, one damn tick (the first for 2024), lots of industrious muskrats, a national gallery of beaver archives, teeming smallmouth bass, oodles of wood ducks and many mergansers, some kind of plover, and at least 20 deer (a quarter of which were drinking in the river and then bolted from one bank to the other upon sensing me).
Shuttle Information:
5.25 miles for two wheels or four. There is one considerable climb up Council Hill Road, FYI, that ascends gradually but incessantly for a full mile.
Background:
Every once in a while, Miles Paddled will adopt a stream. I don’t think there’s a particular rhyme or reason for why or when this happens, and it’s never a preconceived notion; neither Barry nor I sets out with an agenda that, by and by, we’ll dedicate ourselves to paddling damn near every viable segment of a given river. It just happens that way (when it does happen at all). It takes a fair amount of time and dedication, curiosity and forgiveness, to return to a single river over and over, from one season to another, for years on end, connecting segments til all or at least most of the missing links are concatenated and accounted for. It’s a lot of windshield time, of course, to say nothing of passing over other rivers that may be closer or more alluring. Besides, it’s not like anyone is paying us to do this. And it’s not the paddling equivalent of “Cricket” when we’re closing out the board. Yet sometimes there’s a quiet but inextinguishable call to return and dance with the one that brung ya.
After we’ve done so, we wrap a pretty bow around a package and offer our official/unofficial “guide” to that body of water. It’s a little like a boxed set. Got a question about a river or specific section of it, but don’t know where to start? Well, might I suggest our humble “guide to” the fill-in-the-blank stream? Honestly, it’s not a bad place to start together, so to speak.
The Galena (aka Fever) River is a case in point. Barry first ventured out here in 2009, and I myself came down with a case a few years later. Since then, we’ve paddled every segment of the stream anyone has a right bothering with except for the stretch from Buckhill Road to downtown Galena. With no intention of doing so, we’d left it hung out to dry. Why? Because in that five-mile clip the characteristic clear water for which the river is known gets muddy and deep, and its erstwhile swift current hits a brick wall. As bad, the showy bluffs that abound upstream recede to the background. All in all, the initial “fever pitch” of the Galena goes kaput and loses its frisson and sizzle. Still, I felt obliged to paddle this segment… eventually.
We returned to the beguiling Galena in February of 2024, thanks to two freakishly warm fronts in the beginning and end of the month. On the first trip, Scotty and I paddled from County Highway W in Wisconsin to W. Council Hill Road in Illinois. On the second, we paddled the final leg of the river from downtown Galena to the Mississippi River. Left dangling like any old participle were the handful of miles both up- and downstream of Buckhill Road, which is midway between W. Council Hill and Galena (and also where we took out in 2013). So, to make the missing link palatable – I mean, I’m not an idiot – I started this trip at W. Council Hill Road and called it a day in downtown Galena. This gave me 5+ miles of pretty geology and engaging riffles, leaving 4-ish miles of torpid platitude.
Overview:
There’s no official access at W. Council Hill Road, but there’s a very reasonable and obvious spot on the downstream side of the bridge on river-left. There’s no dedicated parking, but the shoulder is wide enough to accommodate a couple vehicles. As we’ve mentioned elsewhere, Illinois law is none too favorable to paddlers. In other words, you can’t just access a river wherever you want, thanks to a bridge, with perfect impunity. That’s true just about anywhere, but especially in Illinois. That said, there are no signs – literal or figurative – at W. Council Hill Road that bode badly for paddlers. But still, be respectful. Nothing is a given, nothing is to be taken for granted.
The Galena is an intimate stream, averaging about 40′ wide. It’s prone to the shallow side, but this has the effect of clear water coursing over small boulders, gravel, and sand. Like the neighboring Grant and Platte Rivers in Wisconsin, the Galena has a classic pool-riffle-pool pattern to it. You’ll invite hang-ups and headaches if you paddle it below 3′, but otherwise there should be enough water to float without bumping into too many rocks. Considering that there’s a short stretch of riffles (and/or Class I rapids, depending on the volume) around every bend, you really want be sure the river is high enough before you leave your home. That said, about a mile or so downstream from Buckhill Road – and all the way down to the Mississippi – the river gets super-deep and just as slow.
You’ll never be far from a farm on this trip, but the agrarian reality is pleasantly neutralized by the spectacular landscape that surrounds you. There will be segments where the banks are so low as to allow the eye to take in the environs – pastures, more oft than not. And to be fair, most of the banks are badly eroded from planting crops right to the very edge. But, hat in hand and hand on heart, if you paddle a quintessential Driftless river in early spring, you’ll be so drunk on all the lush green grass and the teeming buds on boughs as to not care a curse about the farms. As of February and April 2024, there are no wires on the Illinois side of the river.
The views are good right out of the gate – typically long, gentle sweeps with big hills in the background. But after the first mile the river hooks sharp to the left around an imposing bluff studded with rock outcrops that are as beautiful as they are delicate. Here, as elsewhere, you’ll pass by snippets of various low-lying conifers. Half a mile later, the river now bends hard to the right and follows the outline of a very steep hill for nearly a mile. Here, there is no left bank; the hill spills into the water. And riffles are virtually everywhere. It’s a positively fabulous stretch!
Three very cool features appear next, in quick succession. The first is a small cave about 20′ above the river and recessed some, on the left. The grass is actually flat at its base, so scrambling up to check it out would be relatively easy for most folks. Having already pulled a tick off me – the first one this year – I stayed put in my boat. Next are the ruins of some limestone-block building also on the left. This totally took me by surprise, as it’s not in my photos from the 2013 trip or mentioned in Mike Svob’s writeup in his guidebook Paddling Illinois. Yet it’s obviously been around a minute. Surrounded by scrubby trees and shrubs, it’s pretty well camouflaged. Come full summer, it might be wholly enveloped. There’s no roof, of course, but at least three if not four walls are still standing, and the whole thing was at least two stories tall to begin with. Again, a small but flat patch of grass would allow for beaching your boat and climbing up the bank. Again, I declined. The last – there’s always three, right? – is a cool, old rusty truss bridge about 700′ down from the ruins. It’s a rather magnificent mile in its own right.
From here it’s another mile to Buckhill Road. One of the best sets of riffles/light rapids comes in a set of cascading steps, followed by a very attractive cherry-red A-frame house on the right with the kind of dedicated landscaping to the water that you can only admire. What may well be the steepest bluff on this trip is on the left, preceding Buckhill Road, and is festooned with outcrops featured way, way up at the top; alas, these will not be visible in full foliage. But the sheer height alone is quite impressive.
On our 2013 trip, we took out at Buckhill Road on river-left about 200′ upstream of the bridge itself. That was eleven years ago, and while I pride myself in remembering such minutia, I have no recollection whatsoever why I chose to get out there, when Svob’s book tells you to do so at the bridge itself, on river-right no less. It must have looked easier, and there must not have been signage telling me I couldn’t. It’s still easier, but decidedly prohibited, as there’s a Private Property sign and chain barricading the path. Complicating matters further, there’s a house directly across the road here. I have no clue whose land one might be trespassing to use this access, but I’m not in the least interested in finding out in some awkward and altogether avoidable way. Coincidence or conspiracy, there’s a “Galena River Canoe + Kayak Trail” map at the take-out in town that begins at Buckhill Road. Tellingly, it shows no symbol for launching or parking there, however. Ergo, my guess is the local outfitter uses this dirt-gravel access to offload paddlers and don’t want to/can’t risk other vehicles obstructing the path. Either way, as Svob notes, there’s doable access on the immediate downstream side of the bridge (practically under the bridge) on river-right. There’s no path or launching pad, and almost nonexistent parking on the road, but it’s doable. Is it a sucky access? Yes, not gonna lie. Does it beat paddling the next 5 miles to Galena (3.5 of which have zero current, almost no meandering, and feel like a long, straight, stagnant ditch)? You betcha.
Just after the bridge the East Fork of the Galena River comes in, an attractive stream in its own right, and by all appearances the largest tributary. It would be tough sledding to explore it, but several handsome railroad bridges do cross over it. What’s that, you ask? Can you see the bridges without leaving your cockpit or couch? Sure thing, friends, thanks to this admirable website! Oh, I see another hand raised. Ma’am? Ah, good question! Yes, railroad tracks do flank the main Galena River, on the left, just past the mouth of the East Fork. In fact, you might say that they’ll be on your left from this point to the take-out in Galena. Hope you like the romance of the rails.
Big hills in the background and occasional riffles do continue past Buckhill Road…at least initially. It still is pretty, but it’s less rugged and ragged. Gone are the outcrops, not to mention the kinks – no, not the band; the river flows in half-mile-long straightaways, you got me? And soon enough – a mile, a mile and a half at most – the current vanishes altogether. At this point you’ll feel like you’re paddling in a ditch, as you’re hemmed in by the railroad tracks on one side, a grassy and rubble-strewn bank on the other. Between the straightness, slowness, and steep banks, a sense of monotony does set it. You’ve paddled the best by this point. Fortunately, the best comprises the first two-thirds of this trip.
A long straightaway leads you to the surprisingly tall bridge at Stagecoach Road. After this you’ll pass by the second of two railroad bridges that cross over dinky feeder streams. (The previously peppy current begins to slow down before the first. By the time you pass the second, there’s no current at all.) There’s one last attractive hill on the right, opposite a parcel of land called Buehler Preserve (which can’t be seen from the river, thus begging a paddler to ask, “Bueller? Bueller?”) Svob mentions “a noisy foundry” that comes into view on river-right, but I myself neither heard nor saw such a sight. A gradual bend to the right and then left brings the pretty Meeker Street footbridge into view, itself followed by Grant Park on the left – full of memorials and cannons; Galena was Ulysses’ home after all – and an even statelier footbridge that connects the park to the west levee. On your right you’ll see some of the grand buildings that comprise the old town of Galena – the courthouse in particular, as it’s built atop a hill, as well as some churches and their heavenward steeples. I say “some” because the levee obstructs the view of downtown proper and its famous quaint shops chockablock to one another. (It also lends itself to the ditch-like feeling.) Finally, there’s the Highway 20 bridge. On the downstream side are two access options, left and right. I chose the one on the right simply because it’s where our previous trip to the Mississippi River began. There’s plenty of parking at either access, so it’s a horse apiece.
What we liked:
Truth be told, I had reservations about this trip, at least the segment downriver of Buckhill Road. And while that clip does quickly go from great to OK to “OK, let’s get this over with already,” it’s everything up to that point that I will remember. The Galena can be a fickle river to catch at the right water levels. A classic Goldilocks stream, too high will be dangerous, but too low will be deranging. But when the gage reads between 3.1′ and 3.6′, the depth is plentiful – and the playful gradient pays off. The stretch between W. Council Hill Road and Buckhill Road is resolutely beautiful. The infinity of riffles captures that quintessential felicity of paddling Driftless rivers – especially in springtime, when the landscape blooms up but you can still appreciate the tacit grandeur of the surrounding geology. It can be both stoical and prepossessing, but also preciously delicate. Plus the wildlife was extraordinary! Looking back at the notes from my last time in between those two roads, I see that much of the wildlife encounters were identical – the multitudes of deer and turtles in particular. There were no cattle encountered – or wires penning them – in 2013 or 2024.
What we didn’t like:
As much as one can feel a slipping back in time on this trip, at no point do you feel like you’ve slipped into a hidden world, for even in its most marvelous moments there’s still a discernible farm or ranch or whatever on one side river. I’m OK with that – it’s kind of the calling card of Driftless rivers, after all. But the Galena doesn’t quite conjure the wild majesty felt in other neighboring rivers.
No, the principal criticism of this section of the Galena River is the 3.5-mile stretch in between Buckhill Road and downtown, where the current and meandering die and the Rockettes-like bluffs take a union break and hang out in the back alley smoking cigarettes. It’s inevitable, and part of the cost of admission. But it’s a little like Genesis with Phil Collins singing “Invisible Touch” after falling in love with Peter Gabriel crooning about the “Moonlit Knight.” How the hell is this the same river? you rightly wonder. But – as Steve Hackett, Mike Rutherford, and Tony Banks likely all felt after the future sledgehammer would don his bat wings or fox mask for the last time and leave a hole so huge that only a drummer prodigy could fill (pun and double entendre intended) – you take a chance on the known unknown and still find a lot to admire.
If we did this trip again:
I wouldn’t do anything differently, per se, except that I wouldn’t do this trip again. Mind you, I had a wonderful time. But having now paddled the missing link from Buckhill Road to Galena, I personally see no compelling reason to drive 90 minutes one-way to paddle what essentially feels like a narrow canal with no current or charisma to it. Everything upstream of Buckhill is fantastic; as long as there’s enough water, that’s the Galena/Fever River you want to paddle. Alternatively, the final five miles to and then on the Mississippi are a worthy novelty. But otherwise I don’t know why anyone would go out of their way to do this section of the river alone, beginning at Buckhill.
That said, if I were a Chicagoan staying in one of Galena’s cottage industry B&Bs – let’s say because I lost a bet, lost my mind, or owed my girlfriend big time – then doing this whole trip as-is has a unique charm: the countryside for the first 6ish miles is gorgeous (especially if one is more accustomed to a cityscape of concrete, chrome, and glass), the paddling is fun and engaging, and gradually you see Galena come into view with its quaint 19th Century features. It’s a great trip for a tourist getting the best of both worlds.
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Related Information:
Galena/Fever River I: Twin Bridge Road to Bean Street Road
Galena/Fever River II: Horseshoe Bend Road to Buncombe Road
Galena/Fever River III: Ensch Road to Buckhill Road
Galena/Fever River V: Galena to Mississippi River
Guide: Paddling Illinois
Outfitter: Nuts Outdoors
Wikipedia: Galena River
Photo Gallery:
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