Hiking the Hennepin Canal Trail, Part 2
Hiking the Hennepin Canal Trail Across Illinois from West to East | Annawan to Langley | April 2026
On our third day of walking the Hennepin Canal Trail, we had breakfast in the van and then drove to our trailhead for the day, a lot off of county road 22 (N 1920th Street). This was a larger sized lot off a quiet highway that had some signs and outhouses, and was next to another lock. It seemed to be more popular with people fishing than any other activity. We did some stretching, then began our first walk of the day, walking 2.5 miles to where we had left off the night before. These first walks of the day were usually the easiest since we were all refreshed after a night of sleep. We were thankful for clear skies and cool and breezy weather once again today, perfect for long walks!
It was on this stretch of trail that we encountered the most ‘damage’ from the storm two nights ago, in the form of two trees fallen across the path and some flooding under one of the bridges. They were easy enough for us to maneuver around, and we moved as much out of the way as we could. While we walked, we could hear chickens and other noises coming from nearby farms. Some of the noises sounded like kids yelling, but turned out to be goats instead (maybe it was kids yelling). The yelling reminded us of the time we were walking a rail trail in Vermont and heard yelling from a home nearby, which turned out to be a woman who had fallen and couldn’t get up, so naturally we were concerned until we could confirm it was in fact goats! Besides that, this was a quiet and pleasant morning walk.
Once back at the van, we stripped off our jackets and grabbed food for lunch, then took some time to put our feet up and rest. All this long distance hiking was making me crave tortillas with peanut butter, which used to be our lazy go-to hiking snack but we hadn’t had in a long time thanks to majorly stepping up our snack game after we got the van. I started making those for snacks just for old time’s sake, but also included our favorite snacks that we usually carry around with us now: veggies and hummus, string cheese, crackers, dates, peaches, and Dr. Pepper.
When we were ready to continue, we put our boots back on and set out heading East. This time we walked 2.7 miles to Aqueduct 5 near Annawan. We had actually walked here before, starting from the Bridge 23 trailhead where we had camped the night before, back in February 2025. It was on a day when we were traveling from Ottawa to Davenport for work, and wanted to stop somewhere on the way to break up the drive. The section we hiked was short, but memorable since we had done so with Charlotte. I have a video of her walking that day, with the wind in her ears and her tail wagging, and throughout our entire hike I was thinking of that and picturing her walking beside us doing just that. Because we had done that section with her before, we didn’t feel the need to repeat it — it was only a half mile, if that, but there’s no need to redo it.
Once we made it back to the van, we drove back to the Bridge 23 trailhead and spent another night here. Another day done, and just under 11 miles hiked.
The next morning, we went through our morning routine and then continued our walk by walking 3 miles East and back, starting at our campsite at Bridge 23 and turning around at 45th East Street. The weather was still mild, and with it being a Monday morning it was the quietest we had seen the trail so far. The coolest thing we saw along this section was a turtle shell, which Curtis strongly considered taking but then somehow missed on our way back. It was pretty, at least I have a picture to remember it by!
After returning to the van, we relaxed and had some lunch before packing up and driving to the next camping area. Tonight we were staying at Lock 22, a pretty remote campground surrounded by farmland and a few private homes. We no longer had to listen to traffic from I-80, but that’s not to say it was quiet here, because the neighbors had dogs that would bark at anyone on the trail or near the lock. We did our best to be quiet and respectful neighbors for them.
In the mid-afternoon, we set out for our second walk of the day, this time walking 3 miles West to where we left off earlier and back. It was starting to warm up a bit more, but for today it was still comfortable walking weather. The walk was uneventful, and soon enough we were back at the van, making pizza and getting work done. When Curtis isn’t at job sites, there’s hardly enough work for him to do to keep him busy all day, so this hike was perfect for giving us something to do to keep us occupied throughout the days while still giving him the time to get things done.
On day 5 of our walk, we started with walking 3 miles East from Lock 22 to County Road 575 East. This part was interesting because we were finally getting to see the Feeder Canal and Summit Pool that we had only recently learned about. The Feeder Canal starts in Rock Falls, IL and is what feeds the water into the canal from the Rock River. There is also another trail that follows the feeder canal all the way to Rock Falls, which of course piqued our interest. But looking into it we’ve learned that it wouldn’t be as easy as hiking the main Hennepin Canal Trail simply because they don’t allow camping at the trailheads. That would mean either trying to stealth camp or driving a lot more in order to return to the main line campgrounds. We’ll still keep it in the back of our minds, as we usually do for any long distance trail we hear about. It just goes to show that we’re never going to run out of things to do, because even once we check something off our list (like hiking the Hennepin Canal Trail) we learn about something else that we could do!
Anyway, after walking the first mile on the trail along the North side of the canal, as we had been doing all along, we had to cross a bridge to the South side to continue on the Hennepin Canal since the North side would turn into the Feeder Canal Trail. And soon enough, we got our first view of the Feeder — it was so much wider than I imagined, and the meeting of the two was quite impressive, definitely worth what little ‘hype’ it had built up in our minds. It’s wild to think that the water is almost completely flat for 30 miles along the feeder canal and 12 miles along the main line. No locks, no aqueducts, just a man made flat stretch of water.
We admired it (as well as the birds in this area) as we walked along the South side, Once we were passed that, we crossed back to the North side of the trail, continued to our turn around point, then retraced our steps back the way we came and back to the van. I have to say, walking on the South side of the trail was nice because it was in the shade, and it was really starting to warm up again!
Back at the van, we packed up and then drove to the official visitor center and state park headquarters for the Hennepin near Langley. We had visited here back in February 2024 while traveling between Ottawa, IL and the Quad Cities, and went for a short walk with Charlotte on the trail, which happened to be the first time we had ever walked on the Hennepin Canal Trail. Today we started our visit at the visitor center, where we walked through the small museum, chatted with the ranger, got stamps and stickers, and filled up our water containers at the fountain. With that, we were ready for our next stretch of the trail, which was going to be a little longer than expected in the sun that was just a little too uncomfortable. I finally broke down and changed into shorts, lathered on the sunscreen, then we hit the trail.
Because of the length of this stretch and the heat, this was probably the hardest and most uncomfortable that we ever felt while walking the trail, and yet there was so much to this section that made it interesting and enjoyable. We started the trail right behind the visitor center, and ended up walking about 4 miles back to where we left off on County Road 575 East. We crossed a bridge, then walked under I-80 and enjoyed the brief shade here. There were a lot of geese around the park, and we spotted some goose eggs that were laid on a log in the middle of the canal.
After getting past the interstate, we had some great views of the surrounding farmland with rolling hills, and the sky was showing off with small patterns of whispy clouds floating high above. And as we continued walking, we spotted an eagle nest high up in a tree across the canal. We were pretty sure we could see an eagle sitting in the nest. When we returned, we spotted two eagles flying overhead, circling the tree and eventually landing on one of the branches. We also saw a raccoon that was taking a nap in a tree, and though we could only see it from behind, it was pretty dang cute!
We completed our 8 miles of walking under the afternoon sun, bringing today’s total to 14 miles walked (our second longest day), and I was so relieved to get back to the van, take off my boots, wash the sweat off my face, put my feet up, relax and cool off. Curtis, however, had other plans in mind. He spent the next hour wandering around the park looking for letterboxes. I was okay with that since I had everything I needed to be comfortable! When he was finally finished, we made the short drive over to the next campground at Bridge 14. I was the most sore and tired that I had been this far, but we now only had about 42 remaining miles of walking ahead of us, and we knew that was totally within reach!
