Lower Ouachita River in Arkansas
Remmel Dam to White Water Park

September 12, 2023
Report by Kent Walters

All of the preliminaries (meeting at the take-out, shuffling kayaks, driving to put-in, kayak and paddler prep) took place roughly on schedule.  We arrived at the put-in about 12:30, where the only water coming from the dam was in the two small spillways that are always dumping – none of the power generation turbulence or lake leveling spillways were active.  We decided to wait a while because, frankly, lots of rocks were showing, the water was shallow and was not moving very much.  We waited about an hour, and finally decided to launch at 1:30 and drift slowly with whatever flow we had, hoping some volume would catch up with us.

 

We got on the water and within a couple of minutes passed the side channel entry.  The gravel bar was dry from shore to island, so we decided against that option in today’s plan.

 

It was a beautiful day of thick cloud cover and mild temperatures.  We were kept busy finding viable lines and dodging rocks that became visible at the last second.  The water was clear, but the light was coming from in front of us, so seeing the barely submerged rocks was not possible.  Also, with the low flow, the typical surface turbulence over shallow rocks was barely detectable.

 

 

 

We saw lots of Canadian geese.  We could tell because they were all calling “Eh” to each other.  We saw great blue heron, belted kingfisher, and a couple of bald eagles.  On the shore we saw deer, squirrel, and feral cats.  The scenery was non-stop gorgeous, with the multi-green forest climbing steeply up banks and bluffs.

 

 

The anticipated surge of current from the dam release never found us.  We came to the lines of rocks at the whitewater park, and we all chose the left ledges, which had enough flow to push us over them even at the low levels.  Surveillance-quality photos of the action follow:

 

 

We loaded the kayaks and went to the put-in to pick up my truck, arriving about 4:40, where we saw water pouring over one of the big spillways and turbulence coming up from the bottom of the other side of the dam, indicating the generators were spinning.  The water had come about 20 feet up the ramp and it was moving about 4-5 miles an hour.  It looked a lot like the Little Missouri River dam releases.

 

 

We all went to Los Mayas, a fast-service Mexican restaurant, and had a great dinner together and then went our separate ways.

 

Lesson Learned:

Don’t put too much trust in Entergy’s schedules!

Please see photo album here.

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The author, Kent Walters