Where is the Water?

The perception is that the St Louis region is not a center for sailing and water sports. Most people's reaction when you use St. Louis and sailing in the same sentence is, "Really?"

The reality is that there are many lakes sailors can enjoy in the region. Carlyle Lake, an hour east, has been voted the best in-land sailing lake in the country. The next town over from Carlyle is called Breeze for a good reason. The flat topography in that part of Illinois results in steady winds that sweep over Carlyle Lake. Carlyle boasts three marinas and an active Carlyle Sailing Association.
Below is a map that illustrates the many sailing opportunities within less than 3 hours of St Louis, - totaling 380,000 acres of excellent sailing lakes!

Add kayaking and stand-up paddling and the opportunities to enjoy the area's numerous rivers and waterways are truly abundant. After all, St. Louis was established because it is the confluence of 4 major river systems:

• The 2,320 miles of the Mighty Mississippi with its excellent Alton Pool sailing opportunity. This is our water super highway to the Gulf and the rest of the world.
• The 2,340 miles of the Muddy Missouri, the river that Lewis & Clark sailed and paddled to explore the great west. In fact they launched their expedition in St. Charles, a mile away from our store!
• The 220 miles of the Meramec River, excellent for kayaking
• The 273 miles of the Illinois River connecting us to Chicago. All the folks that enjoy the "Great Loop" must travel the Illinois to the Mississippi and usually stop in our area on their way to the Gulf. See more information about the Great Loop at the end of this page.

More locally, Creve Coeur Lake is a hidden jewel in St. Louis with excellent sailing, kayaking and fishing right at our backdoor. The Creve Coeur Sailing Association is active all summer months with exciting regattas. The St. Louis rowing club is housed at Creve Coeur in a new, spacious building providing outdoor water exercise opportunities to its membership nearly year round. Moreover, many lakeside communities such as those indicated as K through O on the map above do not allow power on several of their lakes making sailing and kayaks perfect solutions for enjoying these bodies of water. Most of these lakeside communities also have their own sailing clubs like the one at Lake St. Louis.

TrailNet St. Louis, with its 20-year legacy of connecting all St. Louis with an excellent trail system, has recently turned its attention to our water trail system! Besides the major river systems that converge on St. Louis, there is a plethora of smaller river systems throughout the St. Louis region waiting to be explored.

GREAT LOOP INFORMATION

Great Loop is a circumnavigation route encircling the eastern half of the continental United States. The trip varies from 5,000 miles to 7,500 miles depending on the options used. Kayaks to 60-foot yachts have traveled the Loop. People traveling The Great Loop are known as "Loopers." About 100- 150 boat owners notify America's Great Loop Cruisers' Association that they are planning to attempt the loop in the coming season.

Most Loopers travel the Great Loop counterclockwise, taking advantage of the downstream currents on the Illinois River and Mississippi River to the Gulf. To avoid summer hurricanes and winter ice, most Loopers head north in the spring, spend the summer in the Great Lakes region, and head south on the rivers in the fall, arriving in Florida after the beginning of November.

Starting on the east coast of Florida at Stuart the route heads north on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) along the coasts of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. After that, the Chesapeake Bay offers many different locations to visit and some Loopers go 50 miles up the Potomac to Washington DC. At the north end of Chesapeake Bay the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal connects to Delaware Bay. The Intracoastal Waterway resumes at Cape May and ends at Manasquan, New Jersey.
There is a 30-mile stretch of open Atlantic Ocean to New York harbor. From this point a few die-hard Loopers continue up the coast, around the Gaspe Peninsula and up the St Lawrence River to Lake Ontario. This adds about 1,500 miles to the Great Loop.

From New York City, most Loopers go up the Hudson River to Waterford and then take the Erie Canal to Lake Ontario or Lake Erie or the Champlain Canal to the St. Lawrence. Canada's Rideau Canal, built in 1832 from Ottawa to Kingston, is frequently chosen. Most Loopers will take the Trent Canal from Trenton, Ontario to Port Severn on Georgian Bay. The North Channel is one of the highlights of the Loop. This is the most northerly point on the loop and has the shortest season, just 6 weeks of good warm weather from July 1 to Aug 15th.

Lake Michigan is next with most Loopers taking the more exciting east side of the lake to Chicago. From here it is down the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers to St. Louis. After St. Louis, Loopers travel down the Mississippi to the Gulf and back to the starting point in Stuart, Florida.