April Paddle

For April we took a 3-day trip on the Jack's Fork River from the South Prong bridge to Alley Spring.  River maps and outfitters show this as a 31-mile stretch. 

Zack and I headed out at 5am on Friday morning to meet Kelly and Carson at Harvey's Canoe Rental near Alley Spring.  I've used Harvey's for shuttles before.  After moving their gear to the truck and settling up we headed out for the Prongs to start our trip.

We put in at the South Prong access.  Within 200 yards there was a tree blocking the entire river.  The boys pulled the kayaks over the bank while Kelly and I lined the canoes under the tree.

We couldn't have asked for a much better day.  We saw one other person before lunch.  Carson took a leap from a nice cliff right before lunch.  Two couples were putting in for a quick afternoon trip at the Highway 17 bridge.  We passed a group of women just below the bridge.  We settled for the night around the 85 mile marker on the generic park service map.

Blue Spring is a popular stop for folks. 

The boys gathered up wood and got a nice campfire going.

The meal for the night was tacos.  We stayed in my big tent together.  I fell asleep shortly after 8pm. 

Saturday morning we were out of camp around 9am.

Loaded down.

Kelly had some issues on Saturday.  Somehow he hit a rock that got him enough off balance to tip.  After grabbing some initial gear floating down, Zack and I raced downstream to catch the rest.  A few hours later he was wet again.

Saturday night we camped across the river from the Bay Creek primitive camping area.  It was the first night under the stars for both Carson and Zack.

Sunday was up and out early to head for the truck.

This was the first time I'd been on the stretch from the Prongs to Highway 17.  It is an enjoyable float, but losing a few inches of water would result in a lot of dragging.


Can't beat days like this.