Does anyone live within range of the South Fork of the American? I’m in Southern California and am hoping to fly up sometime this fall.
Anyone familiar with this stretch? Interested?
The South Fork of the American is a great packrafting run, particularly the Gorge section, because there’s a (fairly) new bike/horse/hiking trail that runs from the takeout bridge @ Salmon Falls to the Greenwood river access. If you want to run the upper section as well, there is a little-used road that you can use to bike to the Chili Bar put-in: Take Hwy 49 from the bike trail (either Greenwood or the Cronan Ranch trailhead) to Marshall Road, then take Garden Valley Road to Hwy 193 to Chili Bar. The entire bike/paddle makes for a very long day, but the lower Gorge stretch from Greenwood to Salmon Falls is an easy day trip with lots of fun class III whitewater and a beautiful secluded bike shuttle.