Lee and Chris on the Upper Sauk
Back in January, I reserved a campsite at Bedal Campground on the North Fork Sauk for Memorial Day weekend. My plan was to camp at the put-in one night and then do 2 nights on the river, and offer the campsite to friends who didn't want to boat or just wanted to do day trips. Several people were interested, but in the end only 2 people showed up.
The week before, we were looking at the flow dropping and considering plans for a low water run. Then a couple of days before the trip, the rain started and the flows came up quickly. I switched to my cataraft so that we could carry more rainy weather gear, like a popup canopy, extra tarps, and dry firewood. It also meant that I could help carry gear for the other people.
On Saturday morning, we ran our shuttle. We decided to leave one vehicle at the takeout and one at the mid-way point. The mid-way vehicle had more firewood in it, but more importantly it gave us an option to change our plans if the weather got worse.
We got on the river just after lunch. We ran into a log near the beginning, but the run was clean after that. We made it to where I had planned to camp very quickly, and decided to continue downstream and take our chances with a later campsite. As we passed through this area, we saw a helicopter doing some questionable logging operations. After more paddling, we found a nice spot. I had seen this spot before, but never considered it as a potential campsite.
The site had a nice beach for the kitchen with plenty of driftwood for firewood and several flat sandy areas for tents. It was situated between rapids, though apparently these would not be loud enough to drown out my snoring...
We set up camp and built a fire for dinner. We enjoyed a nice evening, with just a little sprinkle of rain.
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