Salt Springs Kayak Camping

For the past few years I’ve planned a kayak camping trip for my Dad and a few family friends. This years trip was quite the adventure! We got an early start Sunday morning so we could stop and fuel up on a big breakfast before driving up the hill. After not quite two hours, we arrived at the lake and began unloading the truck so we could fill our kayaks with all our camping gear. We split up our gear evenly between my Kraken, my Dad in his Kilroy, Jack in his Cruise, and Gary in my Coosa for our paddle to the back of the lake. Lucky for us we had the wind at our back after we launched, so we made pretty good time heading for our campsite. Just one quick beer break on the way before we arrived at our campsite for the next few days.

Camp went together pretty quickly and soon I was fishing for some quality trout! I focused my efforts on the inlet to the lake and was rewarded with a couple Rainbows close to 18” right away. Not quite what I was looking for, as the lake is known for some giants, but I was content for the time being. Fishing in the lake ended up being tougher than expected. I think that was largely due to the fact they had dropped the lake level 20 feet or so from when I was there a few weeks ago, and it continued to lower a good 3 feet while we were there. The river however provided quite a few fish for all of us, the average size being a bit smaller, but they were pretty wild trout.  I had never fished this part of the river, so I was happy to finally cross that off my list. Most of my trips aren’t always centered around just the fishing, and this was one where we spent a good amount of time hiking and exploring the area. I had read that there was quite a bit of Native American history in the area, and we found some pretty neat stuff. The Miwuk Tribe that lived in the area had built what I’d call a “factory” for collecting and storing saltwater. Essentially, they built large basins that they would store the water in, let the water evaporate, and collect the left over salt for trading purposes. It was pretty neat seeing some of the history of the area! I know my Dad and friends all enjoyed this part of the trip!

We ended up having a great time this trip and are already looking forward to the next!