Dead End CreeK Traditional Cache
Reviewer Smith: As I have not heard from the cache owner within the requested time frame, the cache is being archived.
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Reviewer Smith
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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Dead End Creek
Dead End - there is no outlet - all drivers are familiar with this phrase.
Have you heard of the “Dead Sea”? Water goes in, but none leaves. Closer to home, there is the “Dead River” at Illinois Beach State Park . . . the river never makes it to Lake Michigan. Much closer to the local area is a “Dead Stream” – no matter how hard it rains, this gushing stream fades into oblivion.
HISTORY – Sag Valley
The I&M Canal opened in 1848; a state budget crisis (yeah, what else is new) caused the canal to be shallower than planned. More water was needed. In 1851 a “feeder” canal was completed in the Sag valley to add water to the I&M Canal. Between 1911 and 1922, for sanitary reasons (right, it was a sewer), the canal was enlarged to 60 feet wide and 20 feet deep; this connected to the Ship & Sanitary Canal (completed 1900) at the western end of Mount Forest Island (St. James). In the mid-1950’s the canal was enlarged to 225 feet wide.
Our “Dead End Creek” joins this small canal dug in the early 1900’s took advantage of these other projects to drain the marshes and create farmland. What is now the great expanse of Saganashkee Slough was farmland until the 1940’s.
If you park at 107th Street after a heavy rain and follow the water downstream, you will see it magically disappear – it never makes it (on the surface) to the Cal-Sag Channel.
The cache (ammo can) is at the farthest extent that the floodwaters ever go. BONUS: as long as you came this far, continue 275 feet east to where the old canal is again clearly visible. There you will find a benchmark boundary marker (#11) for the Forest Preserve District.
N41 41.684 W87 54.900
PARK on 107th Street, 2.4 miles west of Willow Spring Rd at Dynamite Road bike path (N41 41.788 W87 55.283).
You can walk down 107th Street sucking exhaust fumes and dodging cars,
OR follow the bike path 300 ft south and bushwhack down the old canal,
OR continue south on the bike path and enjoy an easy, scenic hike on the bank of the Cal-Sag Channel. In 2013 a parallel path was completed offering a more strenuous hike through the canal spoil heaps.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)