North Fork (White River)

I and my daughter canoed from Hale Crossing to Dawt Mill (32 miles) May 16 and 17, 2011, during 'low runnable' conditions. The outfitter, Twin Bridges, thought it would be a 3-day trip. We did it in two days without much difficulty. No one had gone down the river and cleared fallen trees from the winter and the severe spring floods. There were many snags and strainer hazards. One in particular, 20 minutes (paddling, not 'floating') below what they call 'Farmer's Crossing' (marked by a red cattle gate on the left very near the river) could kill people. There is nothing to warn in advance. You come around a very gentle bend to the left, and suddenly you see the river is totally blocked by about half dozen more or less horizontal tree trunks or limbs maybe 3' in diameter right at and above the water line. There are no optional routes. The entire flow of the river pours right under those branches. Immediately before this hazard, there is a 'pool' of non-circulating water off to the right. We tried to get over to it quickly. If we had acted more quickly and vigorously, we probably could have made it, but as it was, we missed it and the current swept us toward the limbs. I jumped out of the stern of the canoe and quickly dragged the boat to shore so we were spared a possible catastrophe. When we started looking for a campsite at about the half way point, we found many of the gravel bars and islands were totally choked with saplings. (We had passed up a couple of decent camping spots to be sure we got roughly to the half way point before stopping for the night). I was getting pretty anxious about finding a camping spot before nightfall when right as we came near the middle or end of an area with a fairly long, fairly broad class I rapid, out of the corner of my eye I thought I spotted an open area of gravel on the extreme left, the view of which was mostly blocked by trees. We landed quickly (no good place to pull off) got out and walked through a sapling choked-area back upstream a bit and found it was an excellent spot--it was just difficult to see from the river. It was not a huge area, but there would be room for maybe half a dozen tents, and there was plenty of firewood and a fire ring (of rocks) already in place. This gravel bar area immediately abuts the mainland, so to speak (i.e., not an island). There were 'no trespassing' signs on trees growing from the mainland, but of course gravel bars by rivers are public property. We respected the no trespassing signs. There was no need to leave the gravel bar. Once we got there, we found a narrow but swift and adequately deep small side branch of the river. We pulled our canoe ashore, and in the morning, we carried our canoe to this side branch and loaded and put in from there, which worked fine, putting us immediately into the swift water below it in the main channel. While there was a large area free of saplings, the gravel was LARGE (chicken egg to ping pong ball size)--I was extremely grateful for my thermarest brand inflatable sleeping pad. I inflated it to capacity and didn't feel a rock all night. Sleeping on a conventional closed-cell pad could have been very uncomfortable.