Yeah, nice review, Al. The Jacks Fork is an amazing river, one of my favorites. Jam-Up cave is pretty spectacular.
One of my earliest float trips, was in early spring, it was warm and the dogwoods and redbuds were just getting going. We went from the Prongs all the way to the confluence with the Current . . . . in 2 days, 40 or so miles. Needless to say, that was when I was young and stupid. Never got so sunburned in all my life. And sunburn on top of sore shoulders is pure misery. We were pretty wiped by the time we finished. Halfway into it, the first day, I recall setting up a makeshift tent on a gravel bar opposite one of those huge bluffs. A big storm was brewing. We had just enough time to secure 4 paddles at the corners of an 8 x 8 tarp and guy it out to stakes in the gravel. Just as we finished, the sky opened up and we squatted under that tarp, and as it rained hammers and nails, we fired up a small backpackers stove and cooked the best jambalya I have ever eaten. When it finally quit storming, low-level clouds hung in the valley, everything was wet and clean, that sweet smell of ozone, and bass busting the surface out in the dead calm river. I was hooked on floating from that moment forward.
The best part of the river is Prongs to Alley Spring. Past Alley it loses a lot of its charm.
