Oh man, do I love this river. My first float was on the JF when I was 7, in (getting old) 1967. Have been on many of the rivers down there, but there is no float better than the upper JF.
Harveys, put in at Prongs or Buck Hollow for 3 or 4 nights on the river, Blue spring, Jam-up, Rymers, the teachers camp, Sycamore Hollow, Chalk bluff, Leatherwood, that shallow stretch above Bay, Bay, the cabins grandfathered in, last night, the "jumping bluff" at Alley, taking out at Alley, and everything else in between.
Watching the buzzards warming in the trees & wheeling around the sky, the mist after a Tstorm, the fog in the morning, a huge gar coming right up to my daughter floating along in her life jacket (my, what a screetch she let out - its trying to eat me!!!!), forgetting how bright a full moon really is, my 180 lb brother standing in the canoe & flying out as it hit a rock (what a hoot that was), lucky trips where I see fewer than 10 other people, the owls bobwhites & whipporwills at night, the night in 1990 the river came-up at camp - that was scary, my son dropping his chili dog into his lap after changing into his dry clothes, counting turtles, just relaxing as the canoe drifts along (no paddling for me).
The smallie fishing, which is (seems) so much better since the smallmouth regulations put in. A 3.0 and a 3.3 pounder in 3 casts one night at Jam-up, a 3.9! pounder camping at Sycamore last year (oh, for that last tenth of a pound), my 11-year old daughter catching a 2 pounder, the pumpkinseeds and the goggle-eye.
Sharing all of the above with my kids as my parents did with me.
I'm in Springfield Il, and get down there every spring the weekend before Memorial Day. Two months to go. Can't wait.
