Lemont: Mile 101.6 (CT)
First visit: Dec. 20, 2022 Public trail? Yes Private land? A little Distance walked: 5.5 miles
I’m sure I don’t speak for every kid from Cook County, but when I was growing up, I would have had little cause to ever be in DuPage or Will Counties. Or any other counties, for that matter. It seems like I spent all my time either in Chicago or one of its western ring suburbs, like River Grove, Elmwood Park, or Oak Park. Kids lead insular lives, in that so much time revolves around school, friends, park districts, libraries, etc. – all relatively local stuff. Field trips were almost always to downtown museums or one of the zoos, with the odd Springfield trip sprinkled in. To the extent I had any familiarity with DuPage and Will Counties, it was probably through tornado bulletins, where they were indistinguishable, to me anyway, from LaSalle or Grundy Counties. And I admit that didn’t change much during my alleged adulthood, at least until the end of 2022, when I began hiking the Des Plaines.
My hikes along the Des Plaines River were revelatory in many respects, but probably nothing surprised me more than the many unique Chicagoland communities I visited for the first time, which included Joliet, Lockport and this town, Lemont. As transition towns go, it’s perfect for the reluctant tourist because Lemont is actually in three counties: Cook, DuPage and Will. And while Lockport may be the town of locks, and Joliet has the big dam, Lemont is indisputably the canal town. Here you can see not only the I&M Canal and the Sanitary and Ship Canal, but the Cal Sag Channel too. The Des Plaines River would almost feel like an afterthought here, if it weren’t for the lengthy fish barrier meant to protect the San Ship from aquatic invaders. Otherwise, these days this is a town of bustling barge and train traffic, with an historic downtown.
Originally known as Keepataw, and later called Athens and then Palmyra, Lemont was established in 1836, and construction on the I&M Canal began a year later, which was briefly halted by the discovery of something called Lemont yellow dolomite, a type of limestone used to build the Chicago Water Tower. This gave rise to quarrying as the second major industry here, after canal construction. The town’s most important buildings were faced with this limestone, and 38 of them survive in the Lemont downtown district, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. Chunks of this limestone can be seen all along the trails and in the forest preserves in the area, and while some quarries are still active down here, most have been filled with water or otherwise repurposed for recreational use.
It’s also the town that introduced me to the Des Plaines River Valley, which had somehow managed to escape my notice before. North of here the Des Plaines doesn’t have a valley, but driving to this area on Rte. 83, Lemont Rd., or I-355, which all cross over this section of the Centennial Trail, the valley yawns before you with a surprisingly majestic presence, reinforcing how different the river is down here. (Drivers on Lemont Rd. also see separate signs for the Des Plaines River, the Sanitary and Ship Canal, and the I&M Canal; this is the only road where I saw this.) The town of Lemont is built on the valley’s hills and seems to ascend skyward when viewed from various trail points, a nice effect for the many church steeples poking up from the trees.
Many ways to see the Des Plaines here
The Centennial Trail runs through here, as do a couple of others, but the first time I saw the Des Plaines from this area was inside Waterfall Glen, a DuPage County Forest Preserve that rings the Argonne National Laboratory. This is one of the largest and most beautiful forest preserves I visited, though practically speaking you can’t get anywhere near the river. You really can’t even see it. Instead, you can walk the Sawmill Creek trail on the preserve’s south end and observe it from the Des Plaines River Scenic Overlook. And it turns out the section that is viewable from the Scenic Overlook is reachable via the Centennial Trail as well.
Besides its relationship with the laboratory, Waterfall Glen is notable in Chicago history for a few other reasons. First, limestone that was quarried here, and throughout this area, was used to rebuild Chicago after the historic fire of 1871. From here it was portaged to the I&M Canal, where mule-pulled barges brought the stone north to the city. Second, this particular trail runs through what was once a nursery for present-day Lincoln Park, providing over 100 acres of topsoil for the lakefront landfill, and 25 years’ worth of trees and shrubs, all of which got to the city via the newer Sanitary and Ship Canal. In all, there’s 11 miles of trails in this preserve, and though 2 miles of it technically parallels the river, it is only viewable from the Scenic Overlook.
Hikers wanting to be closer to the river are better served on the Centennial Trail, which can be accessed beneath Rte. 83, though parking there is sparse. This section of the 12-mile trail is sandwiched between the sections in Western Springs and Romeoville, and though there is plenty of parking at either end, there isn’t much in this middle section. But as if to compensate for this, the southbound hiker emerging from under Rte. 83 is immediately confronted by a choice of three trails, all of which run beside the river and/or the San Ship Canal.
Per the signage, the paved Centennial and I&M Canal Trails converge here, as does the Cal Sag Trail, which was unfamiliar to me. There is also an unsigned gravel trail starting here that runs straight ahead about 2.5 miles alongside the Des Plaines River and its fish barrier. This trail and the Centennial Trail merge by some intermodal yards and slips, where walkers and bikers share the road with vehicle traffic until the Centennial Trail picks up again at Lemont Rd.
All the canals in one place
This is one of the more fascinating trail areas on the river because of its dual access to both the Des Plaines and the Sanitary and Ship Canal, where hikers can also see the Cal Sag confluence at Sepa Station 5, a fountain-like water feature whose cascading falls reportedly oxygenate the canals here. Not only can you choose to hike either the Des Plaines or the San Ship here, the Centennial Trail will take you to both. On one of my winter visits, I tried to walk off the Centennial Trail towards the Des Plaines, just to see what the woods are like there, and encountered a long string of jagged hills, probably made from 1800s canal rubble and other construction debris, that look like a flood barrier for the San Ship.
Once past the SEPA Station the Centennial Trail passes a couple of energy structures serving industry across the canal, which are not unusual to see along this trail. (I also saw them along the Des Plaines River Trail up north). Just a small distance north of the Quarries Recreation Area the trail enters a hectic 2.6-mile stretch of intermodal terminals, with trucks and barges in constant motion. The river, though, is actually pretty serene here, as all the activity is focused on the canal. This will change downstream in Lockport, but for now there’s little river traffic here besides fishermen.
As a trail walker I am accustomed to dealing with bikes and cyclists, and while they’re mostly courteous and respectful, there’s always a percentage of jerks to deal with – which can be said about virtually any group. Because the Centennial Trail is paved, there are a lot of bikers here, especially of the aerodynamic lyra-clad variety, and especially on weekends. Some of them grow impatient and aggressive with trail traffic. They also hit a lot of animals. The dirt bikers aren’t necessarily better, and they’re compounded by the increasing presence of electric bikes, but they don’t seem to have the same numbers. In any case, the faster they’re going, the more menacing they are, even if they don’t mean to be, and the bike traffic on the Centennial Trail is some of the heaviest of any trails I walked.