Feature Story
Good Karma on the Upper Jacks Fork A
s spring continues to emerge, the urge to get on the river starts flowing in my veins the way sap rises in maple trees. My heart begins longing for a trip on the Upper Jacks Fork, a stretch of river that is often too shallow to paddle in the summer. As I think of journeys past, one from a few years ago rises to the surface; it was full of river karma, from the Prongs to Rymers. The Prongs to Buck Hollow The trip was organized by the Ozark Wilderness Waterways Club (www.owwckc.org), of which I'm a member even though I live on the eastern side of the state, and the club is primarily based in the Kansas City area. The planning involved a good deal of stopand-start flexibility. With all the raining and flooding that spring, the trip was on again, off again, until we grabbed a few sunny days between a flash flood and more rain in late April. The river gods were smiling upon us, with blue sky, warm sun and the rosy hue of redbuds just starting to bloom. Our small flotilla of canoes – both tandem and solo – and one kayak set off from the South Prong access at the Highway Y bridge, northwest of Mountain View. As soon as we rounded the corner, the first challenge came into view -- the big culverts we needed to pass through. A root wad blocked one, probably a result of the recent flash flood, so we sailed through the only open option. Looking back after we passed through, we could see the culverts for the North Prong; the two branches of the river join at this point.
