Mile 74: Chicago (DPRT)
First visit: Dec. 12, 2022 Public trail? Yes Private land? Yes Miles walked: 3.4 miles
The Chicago River is a signature element of downtown Chicago, and factors into the city’s appeal and lore as much as its striking lakefront. Famously dyed green for St. Patrick’s Day, jammed with pleasure craft and tour boats all summer, site of a bustling new riverwalk, and viewable from the city’s many famous boulevards and drawbridges, it also sprung a leak in 1992 that flooded the Loop, and of course had its flow reversed in 1900 to direct sewage away from Lake Michigan. Most Chicagoans are probably familiar with at least some of these facts.
In contrast, most Chicagoans probably don’t know much about the other Chicago river. And that assumes they’ve even heard of it. Nevertheless, the Des Plaines River flows within city limits between Higgins Rd. and Belmont Ave., on the city’s western border, and in its history has actually been called the Chicago River (along with other names such as Plein, Aux Plaines and O’Plaine). These days it also drains the Chicago River, along with the city’s third river, the Little Calumet. I’ve said since the start of this fan site that The Des Plaines River is, and has been, far more consequential to Chicago than its namesake river, and that the City of Chicago ought to revise its designation of the city flag’s blue stripes: one for the Chicago River, and one for the Des Plaines.
But, to quote the immortal Rodney Dangerfield, the Des Plaines River gets no respect. Unless, that is, you live in the O’Hare neighborhood, split between the 38th and 41st wards on the city’s far northwest side. Residents in this area drive over the river on Higgins, Lawrence, Irving Park Rd. or Belmont. Many more Chicagoans drive over it on the Kennedy Expressway here. It’s also the only place where one of the city’s iconic el lines passes over the river.
People in the O’Hare neighborhood likely also see the deer that regularly congregate near E. River Road, on the edge of the Catherine Chevalier Woods. They may even visit Chevalier Woods, or the massive Schiller Woods at Cumberland and Irving. These are the two Cook County Forest Preserves the Des Plaines runs through inside Chicago city limits, and the Des Plaines River Trail (DPRT) passes through both as well. Popular gathering spots for Chicagoans and suburbanites alike, these are the two forest preserves I was most familiar with growing up, despite living south of them in River Grove. Schiller Woods, in fact, served as the home course for my high school’s cross-country team.
Trailus Interruptus
Unlike in Lake County to the north, hikers along the DPRT encounter several trail interruptions in Cook County, the longest coming between Higgins Rd. and Chevalier Woods. But that doesn’t mean the river isn’t viewable by foot, which I had to figure out for myself the day I followed Willow Creek and its 52 million gallons of treated sewage towards its date with the Des Plaines River.
This merger point can most easily be seen from the cemetery at the All Saints Cathedral Parish off of Higgins Rd. and the river – not to be confused with the other All Saints cemetery, also on the river, off Central Rd. in Des Plaines. Which my GPS did confuse, which gave me an opportunity to see the river from both cemeteries, 5.5 miles apart. It turned out to be a study in contrasts, the larger cemetery to the north a more pastoral setting than the one off Higgins, which sits in an O’Hare landing pattern and stares nakedly at Rosemont’s hotel cluster across the river. And the Willow Creek merger.
All told, the walkable distance here was only about a thousand feet, and while cemeteries are a great place to walk, they’re generally not great for going off trail, where you’re either stepping around graves or stepping through broken barriers. (Why do cemeteries have fences? Because people are dying to get in.) But if you suffer from river-induced OCD, cemeteries offer some unique and secluded river views, as I’ll discuss in more detail in my Forest Park section. And this one offers a view of the Willow Creek merger, the largest discharge stream on the river so far. I first came here on a cold day in early February, and it was obvious the discharge water keeps the river flowing while ice forms along the riverbanks.
The Catherine Chevalier Woods, named for the wife of Alex Robinson, a Scot-Odawa Indian who was named an honorary chief of the native Potawatomi, is a popular oasis in a crowded neighborhood. The resident deer (said to overpopulate the woods) seem always present, the pavilions and picnic groves are booked months in advance, and there is a pedestrian bridge linking the forest preserve to neighboring Rosemont’s central hotel and restaurant district. I saw as many people entering the preserve from Rosemont as I saw driving in and parking off of E. River Rd.
Construction season in Chicago
The main DPRT leg here was under construction during my first visit in 2022, but I nonetheless walked both the DPRT and a parallel trail all the way to Irving Park Rd., sidestepping construction muck and literally stumbling on several small creeks coursing through the woods. When I came back in October 2023 the work was mostly done, and if first impressions mean anything, it seemed pretty impressive to me, especially the new trail bridge over Lawrence Ave., which looks similar to the one over Lake Cook Rd. in Northbrook.
These upgrades instantly make this the most modern portion of the DPRT, and include a long boardwalk rising at least ten feet above the old trail, which ought to keep it above high water. Combined with a wide new trail artery covered with compacted gravel, this should prove irresistible to cyclists.
This part of the DPRT, all the way to Schiller Brook, between Irving Park Rd. and Belmont Ave., was already mostly elevated, and still has some of the most durable and visible remnants of the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps work. For trail users who prefer dirt, and being closer to the river, the old trail splits from the new just north of Lawrence, where the pedestrian tunnel remains open.
South of the massive Schiller Woods preserve the path runs on the western edge of the city’s Indian Boundary Golf Course, which looks better from almost anywhere than it does from the trail, where hikers see arson-damaged fencing and neglect-damaged woodland, which nevertheless draws deer I’ve seen trimming the fairway grass.
All throughout the Chicago section of the DPRT – and indeed, throughout most of the Cook County portion – hikers will see signs near outfalls and culverts warning of toxic discharge, with a number to call if you see discharge during dry weather – presumably a sign of either a major malfunction or a legal violation of sewer use. This is the result of the combination wastewater/sewer lines common throughout Cook County, which can and do still direct untreated overflow directly into the river. I’ve unfortunately had to contend with water like this that has backed up into my basement, and I can tell you it’s some horrendous and unnamable degree of disgusting. I can’t help thinking about the aquatic life, especially, that gets exposed to this, but it’s a hazard of living on an urban river, anywhere and everywhere.
There are other hazards too, enough so that in Cook County it isn’t unusual to see emergency call boxes dotting the trails. And the trails themselves, though getting better, are still the least improved trails I walked along the Des Plaines.
Having said all of that, and despite the river’s invisibility to most Chicagoans, this is still a popular destination, and is included in an ambitious, even visionary city plan for improving public awareness and access. Called Great Rivers Chicago, the proposed plan, as articulated by the Metropolitan Planning Council, also highlights the Calumet River, I&M Canal, Sanitary and Ship Canal, and improvements to Goose Island, on the north branch of the Chicago River. Sadly, however, of the eight projects chosen for funding in 2023, none of them affect the Des Plaines River.
I’m telling you, it gets no respect.