May Canoe trip Trip Report

“It will have to be done in sections...cause its too funny to miss any of the details...There will be lots of posts from me, Josh, and Prowler, Sonja, I hope will put some thoughts here as well...it was too fun and very funny.”

“well well well,,,all you no shows missed a great show.

Where to begin...

This will be halarious if I can get the time to sit and write it all down...fast and furious...hehehe...not too much, but enough to rock this boat into the drink...oh, but I'm spoiling the beginning of the story...which will not be told exclusively be myself...so, stay tuned and read later on as its still daylight, and I'm technically still on a vacation day, so, I'm gonna goa nd play with Khatru, who did not go on this trip, which turns out to have probably been one of my smarter moves. Be back soon...to tell the tale."
stikmon
06:55:36 PM
05/20/02



hmmmmmmmmm, lets see...
"in a far off galaxy...sorry, wrong story...Buffalo National River, Arkansas, originally to be held at the 11 Points National River, but the 11 Points was a raging fury, so at the last minute we moved it to the Buffalo, For Josh and Prowlers part of the story that involves their cross country road trip from he!!, I will let them tell that side of things. As I was driving from Missouri and into the cross country Arkansas trek...it rained, poured, stormed, wind, and water was seaping into my car via the straps that were holding the canoe onto the car...this had happened during the week, while the canoe was waiting for its first voyage...rained during the week, water seeped into the car (oh yeah...lots of water) and then the sun came out and made my car smell like rotten wet socks...yumm...cleaned and deodorized the car, (can't have TT'er think I drive the stink mobile). Gear...cant' forget the gear...grab this, grab that...no, don't need this, but maybe I will, cripes...I got too much stuff, oh well, better bring more, and the kitchen sink (really and plastic wash tub to wash the dishes)(make note to self..."get a better bottle to hold the dish soap, present container leaks all over everything in the dry bag"). At least its all clean, and a rusty saw and hatchet. nice!

and we ain't even in the water yet...oh yeah...before I forget...I HATE chiggers!!!!!!!!!

ok, arrive at the Buffalo..Josh, Prowler and friends...Brian...and , for the life of me, I can;t remember Brian's wife's name...a little help please!!! shame on me. were there and setting up camp...they got there @ 10 minutes before me...@9:00pm...long drive for them...less long for me, but still 4 1/2 hours in the rain, and I only have one eye and one left foot. Sonja shows up later in her Banana Yellow Escape with a yellow Kayak on top...and we hang and swap stories with each other. After a short bit and 15 beers, Prowler passes out in his tent, Josh, Sonja and I, go over to talk with 2 of our site neighbors, who have taken the experience of canoe camping to a new level...I'm talkin stainless steel kitchen racks...tubs upon tubs of supplies...alchohol, food that can only be gotten at the VERY finest resturants, chairs, tables, canopies, tents...coolers, I mean these guys were professionals! every comfort including remote control tent lights. This was the #&%!$!!! It made us look like amatuers, and we had some pretty good stuff.

Sonja noticed a sign that the rest of us either ignored, or didn;t see..."River Closed due to high water"...damn!!! now what. Oh well, were doin it anyway. Words to doom us all, except Sonja...kayaks are the way to go.

We made it through the night, some were cold, some were tired on the morning...we shuttled the cars in the AM, hit the water @ noon. We were supposed to practice paddling, but did we do that??? NO! we headed straight to the low water bridge, where, we saw the water just churning away, now just a little bit before, we were looking at this spectacle with our cars, and decided that it was TOO risky for big trucks, that they might be swept away, so we went the long way to do the shuttle, but here we are with our little, overweight canoes, and me, being the leader (remember this is the first time I am in this canoe and on a running river, facing the turbulet water that we wouldn;t take our trucks into) went right into the thickest part of the chruning, frothing, grinding water and was immediately ejected (along with all my gear) into the seething water. the canoe did the gator roll, the cooler flew open and all my food went EVERYWHERE, although, the string cheese stayed in the same place and is probably still there, dry bags, cups, sandles, shoes, hat, gloves, went floating down river, where Sonja was rapidly recovering items that she could rescue. Among the items lost were a nikkon camera, tripod, binoculars, camera case, folding aluminum chair, thermarest with chair harness, new frisbee, OJ, milk, hersey kisses, 1 hiking shoe, 1 sandle, 1 five gallon container of water. I was frantacally trying to save as much stuff as I could, when Josh and Prowler decided that they were going to come into the same space that I and my rolling canoe were standing in, I abandoned my place VERY quickly, they barely made it through the froth, they jumped out and quickly came to my rescue and helped salvage what we could. Saved were the cooler with beer (a must save), all the food that I had prepared, the BROWNIES, fruit, 1 five gallon container of water, my camel back with my car keys, wallet and other goodies. But this bag was all I could think of, lose it and I could not get home as all 3 of my spares were in it...not smart, that situation is now rectified as I have stashed a key on my vehicle, but the wallet and credit cards, no credit cards, no replacement of lost gear...one must always keep an eye on the priorities."
stikmon
08:24:55 PM
05/20/02


cont'
"we got everything together, Sonja came up with the lost sandle, so I at least had a matching set of something, sandles...cool. Now remember, this ALL happened within the first 5 minutes of taking off of shore...it was hystericle. All I could do was laugh and curse at the same time...The biggest loss to me was the camera. That is the only real bummer, and the frisbee, The camera had just been repaire, the frisbee was new. oh well, I got credit cards. I see big brown making a few visits to my home, in the not too distant future.

We are on our way after piling back what was recovered into my canoe. It was clear sailing for quite some time, The scenery was awsome, but Prowler took loads of shots and even lent me his camera for a roll, so I will have some photo's soon. The river was up, but still not to the levels that it had been earlier in the week, nor even the previous day.

OH, I fogot...When Josh and Prowler were putting thier canoe in, they almost sunk it, as they had @ 1000 lbs gear and Prowler was sitting in the front of the canoe, the entire tip of the boat was immersed into the water, and Josh kept pushing the canoe in and the front went deeper, finally with one massive push it was in, but so was the water..."
stikmon
08:34:05 PM
05/20/02


cont'
"the views were great, all the rain of the previous days, and now the clear blue sky and raging sun, brought all the greenery into full bloom. It is truely amazing how many shades of green there are.

We started at Hasty Campground and ended just before MtHersey Camp site, a float of 11 miles. It took us @ 5 hours. Along the way, there were some interesting happenings, like another tipping, and such a struggle with getting the canoe righted that death was probably a thought. Brian and his wife, tipped and the rest of us were upriver of them and could not fight the current to go back and help them, Sonja and I tried to walk back up the banks in the water, there were snakes and things that kept Sonja jumping and me her jumping made me nervous, Josh and Prowler, turned and ran away when they heard snakes, pulling there shorts way up, so they wouldn';t get wet and they looked so funny, that I almost fell down laughing. Finally, Sonja and I turned and were heading back, when Brian came floating by us, and then an ugly snake poked his head up right in front of me. Sonja came to my rescue and splashed water on it and it sway off, oh yeah...recovered my bilge cup at this moment too...no thermarest though. We got back into the canoes and headed down river and had no more indidents that I can remember to what would be our campsite for the night at Mt Hersey

....and since I'm so tired, I will leave off for now and write more tomorrow. The saga will continue..." Time to go to bed.”

“Sounds like you had a great time.”

“Before you buy yourself another camera, I want my hundred bucks.

What a moron”

“im tired and hungry so im just gonna say a little right now. ill fill in a little better tomorrow.
stikmon was not kidding. his stuff was washing down the river after we paddled about 100 yards the first day. it was great. perfect way to start off this trip. stikmon's tipping was ok though. we were all laughing about it and lord knows we had enough stuff with us to make up for what was lost, except the camera.

the second day started with a couple good sets of rough water. on the first one me and prowler's canoe took in so much water we almost tipped. we had to get out and push the canoe over to shore to tip it out. this was when we figured out we had our stuff so tied down it wasn't going anywhere. we just tipped it and everything stayed in place, which was a good thing. the same thing happened on the second set of rapids except our boat took on so much water it sank. we were still trying to paddle it but it kept getting deeper so we jumped and rode the canoe downriver trying to stop it. 2 older guys who had tipped right before us helped us stop finally and it took all 4 of us everything we had to dump the water out of the boat.
after we got situated again, by the way we lost nothing during all that, we met back up with stikmon and sonja. we looked back to see brian and shannon tipped at an easy turn. stikmon already told you about all that.
i don't like snakes.

the rest of the day was so beautiful. there was a roll of film around every turn. one particular spot was amazing. i could just imagine it when the water's down and running clear. it would be the best campsite, but we weren't far enough to stop yet, by the way it's just me, prowler, and stikmon, at this time. we literally wasted the whole afternoon away. there was one time we sat in 1 channel so long looking around us and taking pictures we didn't even realize the river had started flowing backwards. well, after all the lollygagging, which was really great, we paddled our asses off for a couple hours and got to our campsite which was also great, and ate everything we could get our hands on. im not even gonna go into it, it will sound like a lie.
i woke up in the middle of the night to find out that my new sleeping bag keeps me warm and dry in the rain(light rain, but still pretty wet). i got up to go under the tarp me and prowler had set up to sleep under cause it was gonna rain, DUH! oh well i was wet but still warm.
we got up at 5 am this morning and paddled 1.5 miles to the car, which turned out to be about 2 and a half hours i think. thanks stikmon, for that one. no, just kidding. that river was so high it was kind of hard to tell where we really were. oh yea, we saw two canoes bent in half from the current, that was pretty cool.
all in all this was one of the funnest trips i've ever been on. stikmon, awesome to meet you and we're definitely doing it again.”

“Whew!! That was a wet one.

Thanks for the write up. Looking forward to the photos.”

“Well, I've never been on a canoe trip where someone didn't tip. No matter how calm the water or how perfect the conditions. You guys are truly champs! Sounds like you had a great time and have a story to tell for years to come. It's a horrible shame about the camera. Ah well, at least it was only stuff that was lost. After all, only people are irreplacible.”

“where do you want your $100.00 sent? I read the post and fully expected you to chime up. A bet's a bet, and I'm good for it.”

“BUNGIE THE ICECHEST LID SHUT!”

“Send the money to the American Cancer Society for Breast Cancer research.

Thanks”

“thy will be done.”

“the cooler lid WAS bungied, and the cooler was bungied tothe crossbar...the water just ejected me and everything else out of the canoe...it was too funny.

I am in the process of replacing my lost items. Josh and Prowler are like 2 women...haggling and fighting and finishing each others sentences...Brian and Shannon, did great getting over the bridge, but had troubles elsewhere on the river and Sonja just had fun, unfortunatley, I had her ramen noodles in my cooler and they got trashed, so she had to eat nothing but power bars, bread and slimfast. She graciously lent me her foam pad to sleep on for sunday night as she left us sun afternoon.

Sat nite was great, we found a gravel bar that provided us with plenty of room and some sand for me to sleep on. We ate like pigs (not Sonja, bread and slimfast), Jambalya and shish-k-bobs and more beer. did we drink that much beer??? how come I wasn't drunk pukin all the beer...I drank alot of beer. We all did. The night ran on, we chit chatted, then one by one, crashed and awoke the next morning to a GREAT SUNNY day. crystal blue skies and a wonderful breeze. After a huge breakfast, we headed down river, the views were spectacular, every turn in the river brought more awsome views than we had just passed. This is a photographers dream world. Pristine wilderness with no outside sounds of the world. It is very easy to drift back into the realm of primeval thought. It is as it has always been, with no intrusions by modern man.

Sonja and I hit a sand bar, after I ran over the largest boulder that I could find, I got stuck on it and was teetering back and forth, but I was determined not to tip, I jammed the oar onto the rock and pushed with all my might and poof....I went flying right over the top. The two of us were awaiting the others when we heard Josh and Prowler, who missed the the rock, and then Brian and Shannon came up, we hung there and ate some lunch, then Brian, Shannon and Sonja headed downriver to their put out. Josh, Prowler and I dilly dallied on the sand bar and then eventually headed downriver where we eventually met up with Shannon waiting for Brian to get back with the car. We headed downriver to find our campsite for the night. we still had 15 miles to go to get to our put out at Tyler Bend. The campsite that was picked was great. A huge pool of water on a large bend in the river and a monster cliff in front of us, very picturesque. We ate an enourmous amount of food, including 2 dozen brownies that were donated to the canoe trip by my mother. Ribs, steaks, brownies, fruit, Jambalya. milk. beer. enough food for the original 6 or even those that did not show for the trip. The evening came fast upon us and we were really falling out fast, Prowler kept on having one more beer before going to bed, this went on 3 times...we were rolling and laughing so hard while the two of them were trying to rig up the tarp with sticks and a chair and one canoe. I suggested using my canoe for the other end and loose the chair, this worked rather well and Prowler crawled in and kept talking and we kept laughing. Josh slept out near the fire and when it started to rain, he crawled into the tarp. I stayed nice and dry and warm in my tent...tarp this boys!!! We woke up VERY early and broke camp in a hurry, so we could get to the cars and on the road as fast as we could, but, we weren't where we thought we were and it took a bit longer, as Josh has previously stated.

I was wondering how I would manage my canoe once I was shuttled back to my car, when Prowler came up and said that they would put my canoe in his truck and take me back to my car and help toss it on the roof for me. I was taken back by the worth of this offer. It was great and I truely appreciated the gesture.

To wrap up, the trip was GREAT! The food was GREAT!
The people were even GREATER!

This was my 3rd TT trip and they all have been GREAT!

You all are awsome folks, and I look forward to years of meeting as many of you as I can.

As Peter Frampton says..."come on, lets do it again".

The end.”

“man, sorry we missed ya'll. we had a good time campin at hasty. the boys caught several perch & a baby brown bass. but how come ya'll dint just put the canoe below the low-water bridge & then start out? lolz! just wonderin.”

“I'm glad yall seem to have fun. Sounds pretty fuct up to me though. I can honestly say, I'm glad I didn't go. I've only been in a canoe 3 times before in my life. I'd have tipped quicker than yall.
I gotta hand it to ya Stikmon. You win the prize for the best attitude in a fuct up situation!”

“ditto, wd.”

“taint nuttin. its only stuff. If I was to remain pissed, then the trip would have been a bummer. The most important recovery was my camel back, wallet and keys to the car, the rest was gravey. Sure did miss ya'll. Got my pics back that I took with the borrowed camera, not GREAT shots, but ok, got a couple of really good shots of Josh and Prowlers over stuffed canoe, but my grey Heron shots came our poor. I will post a link tonight.”

“stikmon...the dumped stuff...did it all sink (thermarest rolled up is still slightly positively boyant)?..how deep was the water in this area? Pretty fast current..need a scuba diver? I love recovering stuff...found a boat motor for a friend in a pond full of small gators”

“was stuffed into the bag that my aluminum folding chair was in, it sank and was swept by the current, never to be seen by my eyes again.”

“Will you be having a memorial service? (j/k!)”

“Great report!
This brings back fond memories of annual canoe trips on the Buffalo during spring break from LSU. Living on beer for days, canoeing at flood stage.
It is there that I learned the fine art of keeping your stuff dry.”

“Dang son I cant say I am real sorry to have missed this one. Well a little, it sounds like an adventure and I love adventures like I always say, “ I will try anything once, twice if it don’t kill me”. Sorry to hear about the gear though that sucks but at least you guys had fun and remember keep me in mind next time.”

“we should go back in august.”

“I am going white water rafting in West Virginia and Maryland to catch the YES concert. August is cooked. Sept early is a maybe, but I am only good for weekends. I have only one vacation day unspoken for this year. I have everything and all trips pretty well booked till November. Sorry. Unless you guys wanna come down early paddle a day or 2 and I can hook up with you and do the Rush to Buffalo Point. It is 23.6 miles, easily a 2 day float. Would that do? As long as I'm off river by 6pm on Sunday, but that leaves you guys a very long drive plus an overnight somewhere.”

“that's a cool float stikky, i'd be down for dat one!”

“stikmon, it'll work. if nothing else we can come down a day or 2 ahead of time and hit some upper before we meet up w you.
.
by the way, you raftin the new river? they don't open the gates for the gauley til sept. the new river's booty compared to the gauly. wait til sept. i get a special price from an outfitter cause my dad's a guide. 130 for saturday camping, sunday lower gauley, monday uppper gauley, and food and beer for the whole time.3
come with us, dude.”

“Great trip! I've only been in calm water, with a few eddys that had my heart racing, I can imagine what it was like to get thrown in! You've got a good attitude, Stikmon. You know what this means? NEW GEAR!!!”

“new girl....I'd trade all the new gear that I;m going to have to buy for one ride with new girl...but since that won't happen, I;ll just have to settle for new gear. Oh the tradegies and difficulties of life...its so hard to be me. I;d like to take a break...can I be one of you for a while.”

“Hmmmmm... try again here...

I don't swim, am terrified of high water and don't want to tip a canoe in even shallow, calm water.... and Chili tried to talk me into this trip. CHILI?? SO WHERE WAS CHILI!?!?!???!!! LMAO! *Note to self, remember to take grain of salt with a Chili trip invite. hahahaha”

“Great report Stikmon. Sounds like quite a trip.

oh... is Khatru a Siberian, by any chance?”

“A siberian...he is and thank you for asking. The most perfect name for a siberian husky.”

“YES - I have to agree !!”

“Smokin trip report! The tipping part reminds me of my high school senior trip! Littered Spring River with my precious gear never to be seen again!

I can must imagine the laughter!

Tex visited this past weekend and we camped (kicked back) at Lake DeGray (SP?) with the kids. I think she is ready for a return trip this fall to the Ozarks. I know I am....floating is good too!

Later!

Moz”

“YES is on tour again this summer. I will be catching them in St.Louis and Columbia maryland. Hands down they Best band in the world.

Last year I took Khatru to chicago to catch them in the park...he really enjoyed hearing and seeing his favorite band. When they played Siberian Khatru...he stood up and clapped his paws during the entire song.”

“Thats got to be the best trip report I've read on here Stick.”

“i saw YEs in Tulsa many years ago. The stage was in the middle of the arena & revolved the entire show. My girlfriend at the time snagged FRONT ROW SEATS! On the song "roundabout" the drum riser elevated like 10 feet & it revolved the opposite direction of the stage. At the beginning of the show, a curtain came down all around the whole stage. When it raised up, there they all were. It was AWESOME! Steve Howell is phenominal! They all are.”

“This tour season marks the return of Rick Wakeman to the band. During the past years, they have substituted the Maestro with adaquate keyboardists, but there is no comparison to Rick. He is the MAN!!! This gonna be the best tour in a LONG while.

Thanks for the kudos on the trip report, its easy to write great reports when the trips are great in themselves and the company of travelers are also great. I look forward to the next adventure with more TT folks.”

“In StLouis with me?. its a thursday nite”

“Dam Sticky, the Thur night part is a deal breaker for me. since it's that far from me, I would have to take off 2 days. It's a bad time of year for a maint tech to be takin weekdays off(lots of A/C's break down). Wish i could, thanx for the invite! Are they going anywhere else on the tour? like Little Rock, Tulsa or Okla. City?”

“no yes shows anywhere in your vacinity. sorry. Maryland and st louis...here I come!!!”

“here is the first set of photos from the trip. Looking at them makes me want to go back and do it again, maybe even recover my thermarest...they have gotten expensive.”

“This WAS the BEST trip I;ve ever been on!!!!

WE MUST DO IT AGAIN!!!

I think Stikmon and Josh completed all my thoughts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Stikmon Ill send your pics soon but man I am looking forward to tripping with you again in the fuure. Make the dates and Im there.. Thank You for a great time!!!”

“It was a treat to meet and get wet with you too. I want to get watered down again this month, I would like to do something in Ill. Lets do some planning...any ideas? I only have sats and suns. actually, now that I look at the calendar, this month is cooked, except the weekend of 22/23. I will be onwater that weekend...don;t know where, but when I get there, I;ll know it.”