Jack's Fork River

Back in late April I took my kayak out for it’s first real voyage. I went with a guy here at work who is a retired police officer, and we floated the Jack’s Fork River in South Central, MO. Our trip started at the Prongs and went to Bay Creek. Here is a map of the river to refer to. If I remember correctly, this was about 25 miles.

We took a pretty leisurely pace and spent 2 nights on the river. If you look closely (or not so closely), you will notice my kayak had not yet suffered it’s fatal falling-off-the-truck experience. That would have been on the way back home after this float. I can always look back on this trip as the one where my kayak was still perfect. I think I like it better now, it almost looks like it’s been in a battle!

As you can see by the pictures, the leaves had not really budded on the trees yet, which was probably due to the hard freeze we experienced around the 1st or 2nd week of April.

We only spent one entire day on the river, but it was a long day with temps in the upper 80’s. Here’s a pic of myself by a sand bar we stopped at that afternoon for a snack and to stretch our legs. (I must insert comment here about my awesome long hair!)


The 2nd night we found a nice spot to set up camp with a trickling waterfall on the other side of the river, so we had some nice sound effects to fall asleep to. We had the truck shuttled down to the take out point by a guide service around Eminence. This is a pretty good option if you don’t want to take 2 vehicles. I think it costs around $50, but you’ll spend that driving 2 hours each way to and from the river, plus wear and tear on your truck. I would definitely consider this for any other float that is a fair distance from home.