On July 27, 2024, my friend Alan Travis and I took his boat to pick up Hunter Nikolai at Ben Watts Marina on the Chain O’Lakes for an afternoon of boating.
Hunter is the new volunteer services coordinator for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in Region 2, which encompasses the northeastern area of the state. Hunter had never been on the Chain before.
We started out cruising the relatively quiet Pistakee Lake. Then we proceeded to the west channel that
goes under route 12 and into Nippersink Lake. That channel, like all the channels on the Chain, is no-wake. As usual, lots of boats moved through the channel.
Our trip then took us through Nippersink and into Grass Lake. The main attraction of Grass Lake is Blarney Island, a popular bar and music venue. We drove by but did not stop in. Traffic was getting
heavier.
The next channel took us to Lake Marie. From there we went through a short channel to Bluff Lake, a smaller lake with a lot of boat traffic. The next channel took us from Bluff Lake to Spring Lake and into Petite Lake. This is a long channel with homes on both sides. The homes used to be summer cottages but in the last year, most of them have been converted to full-time residences. Again, lots of traffic
congested the channel.
The next lake was Petite Lake—the smallest lake on the Chain but one of the most crowded. There
is a huge sandbar at the southeast end of the lake, which always has a number of boats rafted up. This day was no exception.
The next channel took us to Fox Lake, the second largest lake on the Chain and the most popular. Again, being a beautiful day, a huge number of boats were rafted up there.
Heading down Fox Lake, we then proceeded back to Pistakee and Ben Watts Marina. The marina was so crowded that we couldn’t get to the launch ramp to drop Hunter off. We went to Alan’s summer home and put the boat on the lift, and I drove Hunter back to the marina to get his truck.
The whole trip took about three hours, and it gave Hunter a great chance to see what the Chain was
all about.
great great I think you missed part of the change of fishing the outdoors to hunting the upland the waterfowling of course a lot of it ain’t going on at this time of years but the chain is not only for driving around in circles wasting gas and going to bars it’s a big part of the chain of lakes for the last 50 or 60 years that I’ve been out here but the heritage of The Great outdoors the echo system the wildlife the fishing the natural resources are the main attraction and should be the most important reason to visit the chain God bless everybody good luck out there Chuck but I think you missed half of the attractions the wildlife besides the girls and bikinis jumping up and down in boats driving around in circles God bless you