Took the 5 mile trip from Elgin to St. Charles. Interestingly enough, we made the trip in early October, even though rental was advertised as "April through September." It was nice weather and they were still putting people in the water in October. They seemed to operate their business via telephone, so if interested, best to call them.
Outfitter Joe (a part-time businessman with a pickup and some boats) met us as agreed at Ferson Park North of St. Charles and spotted us upriver to an Elgin park in his Pickup truck.. Joe was friendly, he was on time and Kayak and life preservers were in decent condition.
First part of the trip,near Elgin was very scenic. However, the portion of the Fox river north of St Charles had more than it's share of Motor boats and jet ski's. Also there were several homeowners manicuring their lawns with the aid of very noisy weed wackers and mowers. Not really what I was hoping to hear. Perhaps it was too nice a day as it attracted too many others to the water also!
I could have used (and expected) a map of the river as part of the rental service. Joe must have had a paper shortage as we also should have received a copy of the release form I signed (instead of common petition style release form signed by dozens of others that he himself retained).
Fortunately there was no incident and that minor legal point didn't matter.
I've rented many boats. This was the most expensive hourly rental as well as the first river canoe/kayak I've rented where the operator didn't supply a complimentary map. Suggesting only (from the side of the river) "it can be downloaded from internet". Of course Too late at that point. So...Bring your own river map.
The $60 fee seemed a bit high to me, but included the transportation fee and was the same price saw at another outfitter along the Fox.
I'm spoiled by Wisconsin prices I guess (where I paid $25 for entire days rental only a few weeks ago).
The outfitter was friendly and on-time and the trip was at least partly scenic. For $60, however, I expected a map and my own copy of the release form that I signed. 3.5 stars. read more