Hennepin Canal / Bureau Junction
Week 2 in Ottawa, IL | Hiking the Hennepin Canal Trail near Bureau Junction, IL | February 2025
On our second day off in Ottawa, we decided to drive a little further to go for a walk on the Hennepin Canal Trail, a long distance path that goes from the Illinois River to the Rock River across Northern Illinois. We had walked a portion of it starting in the Hennepin Canal Parkway State Park last year, and seeing as it’s also part of the American Discovery Trail, being able to hike as many sections of it as we can is naturally something that interests us. Today we drove to where the trail begins in Bureau Junction.
We parked in a small lot off of IL-26 right next to Lock 3. After crossing over the canal, we decided to focus today’s walk on going East towards the true start of the trail and the Illinois River, located next to Lock 2. Walking on this trail reminded us a little of our time walking another long distance trail, the Wabash Trace through Southwestern Iowa. It was the perfect way to be out alone in nature and get some exercise. The only downside was that there were lots of dead fish along the trail that we had to keep Charlotte away from. There were even fish frozen in the water! Besides that, it was a peaceful walk along the water, admiring the empty fields as we strolled by.
During our second week in Ottawa, Curtis began working the night shift. Since the actual outage hadn’t started, his hours were a bit on the lighter side. We settled into our daily routine here – which felt pretty familiar at this point because it’s the same routine we’ve had during our other times in Ottawa – with Curtis coming home, having breakfast together, then him sleeping until the mid-afternoon. Then we’d go out for a walk around downtown Ottawa, pick up dinner, then come home, eat, and relax until Curtis had to go back to work. We got some more snow this week, but at least the temps were still conducive to our afternoon walks.
On Friday, Curtis had another night off, giving us a little extra time to for our afternoon walk. We drove to the Fox River Park in Ottawa, and walked the I&M Canal Trail West towards the downtown area. It had just snowed the day before, and while the roads and sidewalks were cleared, the canal trail was covered in an untouched layer of fluffy snow. Charlotte loved bouncing around in the snow and trying to track down scents buried beneath it.
