Salt Fork River Paddler's Map

We have made a start on a Salt Fork River Paddler's Map of natural, historical, and other sites of potential interest on your next float. Many sites are on private property and should be viewed only from the river; a few sites that are off the river are noted as being on public roads or park property.

This is a work in progress. Please contribute ideas for additional sites by email or comment to this post.

River Tubing

The Salt Fork River is still quite high and moving rather quickly due to all the recent rains. Please consider this if you have plans to be on the river this 4th of July.

Lately,  I have noticed more and more people on the river in tubes. Tubing can be a great way to relax as one floats down the river. Tubing can be a novel way to experience the river. But tubing can also be dangerous.

• Please inform others of your plans to go tubing. Where you are going and how long you expect to be gone.
• Take a cell phone. There are small plastic water tight containers just for cell phones.
• Check the weather before going.  Storms can come up quickly.
• Familiarize yourself with the area of the river that you will be tubing on.
• Wear a life vest and sunscreen.
• Stay in the tube.
• Try to have as little impact as possible on the natural area you are in and don't leave trash behind.
• Most of the land you are floating by is private property.  You need permission to go on it.

As always, have fun and keep safety in mind.

Homer Lake

This morning we had a fun time paddling on Homer Lake, located immediately north of the Salt Fork between Saint Joseph and Homer. We saw lots of fisher people and folks out with their dogs. Even saw another kayak. It was delightful to explore the more shallow coves with the jumping fish and turtles, lovely blooming wild blue iris and arrowhead. The lake can easily be paddled and explored in a morning or afternoon. However, if you are not accustomed to paddling you may only want to do part of the lake. Unfortunately, there was trash that could have been collected but we had nothing to put it in, so next time we paddle the lake we will bring a plastic bag and our nifty "Gopher" pick up tool!

Hydrochory

Walking the paths today, the wind was quite strong and the air was full of helicopters, mostly maple seeds being carried long distances from their parent trees. Arriving at the Salt Fork, it was clear that the wind was not the only thing dispersing these seeds. The surface of the river was covered with them, as shown with a sample in the inset, probably a silver maple seed. This is a reminder that hydrochory, the dispersal of seeds by water, is an important transport mechanism for riparian plants. Rivers and their tributaries can carry the seeds long distances and through broad changes in latitude, and downstream floods can deposit the seeds at some distance from the riparian corridor. Such dispersal can help maintain connections between isolated communities of plants as well as support plant diversity along the corridor.

Spring on the Salt Fork

A short kayak trip on the Salt Fork this afternoon revealed the beauty of the river habitat. The redbuds were in full bloom as were the serviceberries. The emerging leaves of the Sycamore and their white trunks were magnificent as viewed against the bright blue background of the midwest sky. And meanwhile along the shore, blue bells, violets, and spring beauties were blooming everywhere. The scent of the blooming blue phlox was in the air. Needless to say I was so busy taking in the beauty of the vegetation, that I only managed to view a few Canadian geese, a turtle sliding off a log and a heron flying overhead.

Otter Observations

I've lived here on the family farm all my life. When I was young boy, there were no deer, coyotes, beaver, or wild turkeys. Now, another species has been living here on the farm; otters. This season's long term snow cover has revealed otter foot prints along the Salt Fork River.
Jim Smith

<--Otter tracks

Entrance to the den -->

<--Otter slide where one has slid into the water.

Otters enjoy eating the fish in the river, but they don't much like the heads. You can see the sucker head left at the top of the slide.

Mirror Image

On the day we kayaked the Salt Fork, the water was so calm that we were able to catch the reflection of the tree silhouettes. Silver maple, cottonwood, black walnut, sycamore, shagbark hickory, red and burr oak, each with its unique branching pattern, are some of the common trees we see along the river.