Overnight Kayak Camping on the Current River

As promised, I’m working on migrating some of my older posts from my previous blog to Amor et Vita. With the weather warming up and summer right around the corner, I thought it would be fun to revisit my first-ever overnight kayak camping trip we took last June! I’m hoping, as many places start rolling back their shutdowns and opening back up to the public, there are going to be a few more camping trips this summer as well!

Post originally published September 11, 2019 on Misadventures of Me.

Back toward the end of June, we took the kayaks out on the Current River with a group of friends for an overnight camping trip. The trip measured right around 10 miles, and we stopped just over halfway to camp on a gravel bar.

This was my first time camping in what felt like forever and I loved it! This was also my first time kayaking down a river versus kayaking out on a lake, which is where all my previous kayak experience has been. The portion of the river that we went down was pretty tame, with just a few tricky spots. One of the biggest things you had to watch out for is all the floaters and other kayaker’s out on the river. The area we launch from was pretty crowded, and it took a few miles for everyone to get spaced out enough we didn’t have to worry about being bumped or pushed around by the larger rafts.

The Current River is spring-fed, so it stays fairly cool despite the air temperature being in the 90’s. So it was nice to take a break every once in awhile and wade in the water and fish. I saw a few fish in the water, but didn’t have much bite success other than a few baby bluegill playing with my flies. We put in at Akers Ferry, and pulled out at Pulltite access.

Below are some photos from our trip down the river. Only one person flipped their kayak, and we all made it out relatively unscathed. I’ll do a post later with a list of the gear that we took on this trip, with links! I honestly can’t wait to get out more with my kayak and take more camping trips in general.

overnight kayak camping on the current river — Cooking set-up

The spring-fed cave you could paddle into, the water was amazingly blue and at least 15-20 degrees cooler than the river outside

Just outside the cave, look at the color difference in the water!

A requisite kayaking selfie. I was one of the only people in our group to wear my life jacket, but after having a near-collision with a root ball and then having to get out of my kayak in swift water to reposition it, I felt more comfortable wearing it.

So that wraps up my trip of overnight kayak camping on the Current River! The Current River is so beautiful, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to do some paddling on the river. You can find any of the products in the photos listed on my shopping page.