We met for the first time together as a group after our various travel adventures on Thursday evening at the Ozark Café in Jasper, AR for dinner and a quick orientation meeting. As you can see in the chart above, it had been raining, and at the time we were chowing down, the report was showing the river at over 2000 CFS. We planned as if it would come down to below 1000 CFS by morning (which it did).
After a good night’s rest (with the possible exception of those who were awakened by the incessant call of the whip-poor-will), we consolidated boats, drove past the Ponca put-in, and took a little hike into Lost Valley. We found it again, even though the powers that be tried to disguise it by moving the parking lot about a quarter of a mile further from the falls than it was last year. It was a beautiful walk through the lush, new foliage to the “Natural Bridge”, which is really a curved tunnel through the limestone rock face – very dramatic and inspiring. After exploring that area a bit, we continued on to Eden falls, another lovely spot. Upon our return from these scenic wonders, we ate lunch under a considerately provided roof on convenient picnic tables.
We began paddling from Ponca at 3 minutes to noon with a flow of over 750 CFS. The water was moving along nicely, with essentially no air gap under the low-water bridge. It was a beautiful day and the scenery was spectacular, with the brilliant, lush greens of a wet spring and the dogwood in bloom against the dramatic backdrop of the grey, black, white and rust colors of the stained limestone cliffs rising hundreds of feet next to the water in many places.
We paddled several miles through the stunning scenery and stopped for another short hike to the waterfall at Hemmed-In Hollow. It did not disappoint with its undulating curtain of water falling from over 200 feet above us.
Returning to our boats, we paddled on to Kyle’s Landing (our campsite), did the reverse shuttle, and had to change our plans for dinner because the Low Gap Café was overwhelmed with an hour-and-a-half estimated wait time. That is why we found ourselves back at the same Ozark Café, where I was informed that certain members of the group were against completing the shuttle that evening, which was a good idea and was accepted without hesitation on its merits.
Back at Kyle’s, the campground had filled up, and where the first night we were all alone in our campsite on the hill, we found ourselves surrounded by several groups of young, extremely enthusiastic young Boy Scouts. Fortunately, they eventually settled down and we slept peacefully until about 6:00 AM (except for those sensitive to the Whip-poor-will).
Saturday dawned beautiful, and we ran a long shuttle (thank you Ken and Duane) and packed our camping gear into our boats for a noon launch from our camp at Kyle’s Landing. Bruce and Denise Asher from HASK joined us for the first part of this segment which continued the theme of great beauty and interesting water. We had a nice lunch break on a gravel bar – a nice “sol y sombra” arrangement accommodating both those who were dry and hot and those who were wet and not as hot. We said goodbye to Bruce and Denise at Pruitt’s Landing and continued paddling past the confluence of the Little Buffalo River. Highlights of this segment (besides the ever-present beauty of the scenery, increasing clarity of the water, and perfection of the weather) included sightings of several bald eagles, a very large nest and a beaver.
About a mile shy of Hasty and a little over 19 miles from our launch, we found the perfect spot with just enough sand to provide good tent sites. Across the river from us was a high bluff with a trickling waterfall that serenaded us all night. As dusk gave way to dark, we sat around talking about a Jedi “look” taught to Marines that deters evil-doers, Kracken, Alaskan adventures, dogs, alligators, Boundary Waters, a frog that sounded like a goat – the usual cohesive and interrelated topics. While viewing the stars, planes and satellites, we noticed fireflies sparking out over the river in front of the bluff. It was magical.
We launched at a very civilized time (late) on Sunday. We quickly passed the Hasty and Carver campgrounds (Carver was our planned camp site for this day), and arrived at Mt. Hersey at about 3:00. We held a short conference and decided to continue all the way to Woolum to finish our planned paddle. Some opted to get an early start on their travel back, and the rest set up camp to rest up before a repeat the Ponca to Kyle’s segment the next day. I did not plan the 20 miles for today – it just happened.
All were able to participate in some portion of the brutal recovery shuttle before either taking off or regrouping at Kyle’s landing for the night. Special thanks to Bob Scaldino for his solo trip back to get all remaining people and boats at the take-out, where considerable reconsolidation had to take place to fit everything in for the 70-minute drive back in the dark.
The late shuttle group built and enjoyed a campfire at the takeout while waiting for their turn on the shuttle. Another campfire (started by Ken McCormick with his camp stove under wood piled on a grate) at Kyle’s was waiting for those coming in the late shuttle, and a late dinner followed with some contented and subdued conversation.
Natalie camped with us Sunday night, and on Monday morning waited for us to run the drop-off shuttle and come back with our vehicles, whereupon she took us back to the put-in before continuing her trip to Shreveport. That left all vehicles at the take-out for an easy, no-shuttle departure. Thank you, Natalie.
The six of us left at Ponca paddled a completely different river than the one that started our trip. It had settled from almost 800 CFS to about 300 CFS, which caused us to be more alert to rocks that were now within striking range of our hulls. Some of the earlier riffles now required maneuvering with quick turns to avoid the now-shallow pointy boulders that were poking up. This segment produced many shelves and drops that had been washed out before – lots of wet fun.
We splashed into Kyle’s Landing about 3:00, loaded up and went our different ways toward home. Bob and I got to make some repairs on our way home. Bob’s repair was more elegant with an actual purpose-built harness to replace the one that dragged itself to disintegration on the pavement. My repair involved duct tape.
Wonderful scenery, good exercise, exceptional weather, great people, and nobody died.
|
| Map (click to enlarge) |
After Action Report:
We got lucky with our timing for this trip:
The red boxes represent the periods of time we were paddling in various portions of the river.
Kent's complete photo album can be seen here.