Spring River - July 15 - 16 2021

Submitted by Mary Finley

I arrived at Spring River Oaks on Tuesday and late in the day decided to venture down to Saddler Falls Campground and checkout the river.  I couldn’t see the falls but did see Deadman’s Curve where we stop for lunch and it looked normal.   Leaving there and heading back to SRO around 6pm, there came a loooong train.  It finally stops but the last tanker and end push engine was staring me in the face.  After about 15 minutes, I got out and walked to the truck behind me.  This local man saved the day.  Thank goodness he had cell service and thought that there was a sign on the railroad crossing.  Yep, there was a blue sign with a number to call and the location identifier as to crossing where we were.  They moved the train in about 5 minutes.hooray!!!  I didn’t know about these signs.  There was one on the other side of the track too.

I scouted the river Wednesday morning and could see at Dam 3 that the river was low.  I talked to the owner of Riverside Campground and he said that was true and that they hadn’t had much rain.  His advice was go left on the river as we always do except where we know to go right.  Sara Oaks paddled a section of the river below Hardy on Wed.  She used to come up here to camp when she was young.  She now had a kayak.  She decided not to paddle the upper section.    

Richard arrived in the middle of the afternoon and in setting up, had issue with his water line.  He finally got everything working.  It was sooooooo hot.  I don’t know what the heat index was but it was HOT.  Around 5pm we decided to put my boat up on his truck.  Well, we found out How Not To Do It”, and he eventually went to the back of his truck and got it up one the cradle.

Thursday morning, we both decided not to paddle and I took Richard around SRO, he’d only camped there once before.  We then headed to Dam 3 as Richard had never been to the fish hatchery.  We both enjoyed talking to the worker and watching the fish them feed them.  We then headed to Mammoth to enjoy lunch.  We sat around the camp site and enjoyed the day.  He left the next day midmorning, heading to Eminence and the Current River trip.

Houston and Gretchen came up Thursday and came to SRO around 9am.  The three of us headed off to Dam 3.  After shuttling. We enjoyed the first 1-2 miles until the rain came.  It poured.  We pulled to river left and waited.  The rain finally eased up but the 3’ fog on top of the river was some bit of an issue.  But thank goodness we know the river and the helmets kept most of the rain off our glasses.  We made it to Riverside put-in and the rain had stopped.  We decided to go ahead and head for Saddler Falls Campground. Saddler Falls Campground.  With the campground in site, we heard thunder and a clap of lightning.  We pulled off the river there and the young man working the, Adam his grandfather had bought this area several years ago.  He was so nice and took Houston to SRO to get his car.

The three of us changed out of out wet clothes and headed to Mammoth for a midafternoon lunch. 

All in all, everything turned out okay and not swims or issues.  We agreed that a short 4 mile paddle was worth it.  Just getting out of town and on the river is good.