Trevor Kroll bought a McHenry County-based kayak and canoeing outfitter in early 2020, right before the COVID-19 lockdowns.

That summer was insanely busy, the Wonder Lake man said, as people discovered the sport as a way to get out of the house. They also discovered his business, Scull & Oars, which offers rental and group outings on the water in kayaks or canoes.

Kroll said the biggest challenge for most people is where they would store a kayak, so they’re able to rent one from him instead.

“They show up and go down in the water with a life jacket on,” he said. “You have your paddle, and you are all ready to go. You don’t have to worry about storage, you don’t have to worry about transportation or having a rooftop carrier.”

While business has been strong – selling out weekends in the summer and many weekday groups in need of an outfitter – Kroll is ready to move on with another business venture. He’s put Wonder Lake-based Scull & Oars up for sale, advertising that on its Facebook page.

No data exists on how many people are kayaking on the Fox River, its tributaries or even on the Chain O’ Lakes, but those involved in the sport say it’s picking up momentum.

In 2023, the river got branded as a national recreation trail. The Fabulous Fox! Water Trail – as it is promoted by supporters – runs from the headwaters in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, to the southern border of Kendall County.

The trail is 158 miles long and has more than 70 access points, according to fabulousfoxwatertrail.org and officials promoting the water-based recreational trail.

As an outfitter, Kroll takes kayaking groups out on the Fox River in Wisconsin from Burlington to Wilmot, and in Illinois from Algonquin to Carpentersville.

But his favorite places to kayak are often on the tributaries – particularly Nippersink Creek, where it’s been restored by the McHenry County Conservation District.

“It is a world-class project that they did. There are birds, wildlife, flowers – it is a unique place in the confines of Chicagoland," Kroll said.

That project, remeandering Nippersink, started in 1999, said Kim Compton, an education program coordinator at the conservation district.

From the 1950s to 1999, the creek was “channelized” by agriculture users, including through the district’s Glacial Park Conservation Area. That caused more erosion and 6-foot mud cliffs on either side of the stream.

“You couldn’t see beyond the channel walls,” Compton said.

Now that the stream is meandering through its route again, kayakers can get on the water at Keystone Landing and go to Pioneer Landing, paddling for about 7 miles.

“About 99% of that is Glacial Park,” Compton said.

When water is running fast, that Nippersink trip can take about 2½ hours, but it can take up to four hours when the flow is slower in late summer, she said.

With the removal of the Carpenter Dam near Carpentersville, those paddling on the Fox can go from Algonquin to the Dundees too.

On June 22, El Cardunal, a 5.9-mile kayak and canoe paddle event, saw 96 kayakers and canoeists launch at Cornish Park in Algonquin and finish at Bartels Park in East Dundee.

Overall water quality is “good” now on the Fox River, said Gary Swick, president of the Friends of the Fox River, which hosted the event. The nonprofit group advocates for the river’s health and tests for water quality.

“It is very consistently but slowly improving” and has been over the past 50 years, Swick said.

He also helped to guide a group Aug. 19 at the Carpenter Dam Forest Preserve. Built in the mid-1800s, the dam was removed last fall as part of a $1.2 million project by the Kane County Forest Preserve District.

With low water levels in the winter, removing the dam exposed pipes belonging to Carpentersville that now must be reburied. Preliminary estimates for that work is between $3.5 million and $4 million, Village Manager Brad Stewart said.

The water level at the dam “is significantly higher [in] the past few weeks than it had been earlier this year,” Stewart said.

Swick is on the river and its tributaries in a kayak testing water every month. The main stretches of the Fox – at least the parts not near the remaining dams – are pretty safe to paddle. But his favorite section is from Buffalo Park to Fox River Shores in the Kane County forest preserve system.

“It is a short paddle, but it is almost all forest preserve on both sides,” Swick said.

Labor Day is often thought of as the end of the boating and kayaking season in northern Illinois. That isn’t quite so true anymore, Kroll said.

“We are having much longer summers than we have had before,” he said.

While he wants to sell the business, Kroll also encourages first-time kayakers to use an outfitting company like his to learn.

Swick suggests going with friends who may have an extra boat to borrow and learn from them.

“There are things you can learn to do outside, different things to do to enjoy yourself,” Kroll said.