that old nasty buffalo river trip report

“everybody (eight of us) met at my house after i got off work on wednesday morning and we hit the highway by 10:00am....took two vans in a convoy....made pretty good time and arrived at the bunkhouse at wild bill’s outfitters in yellville, arkansas by 11:00pm....after a solid night’s sleep (i was informed that i was shouting and gesturing in my sleep....go figure), we got settled up with wild bill, got shuttled down to the river, and put in at rush....

what a beautiful clear river....huge bluffs, sandbars, cliffs, and we could see fish (including those big old alligator gars) swimming everywhere....saw some river otters playing around....the only problem was that it was rainin kittens and puppie dogs all over our parade....we found a great campsite on a sand bar overlooking a deep pool full of those garfish....got our camp set up and the kids flipped the aerobie around while the old people built a huge campfire....cooked weenies over the fire and wrapped em up with cajun rice and cheese in tortillas....mmmm....washed it down with some snappy tom i sneaked into the bottom of the cooler.....it stormed like crazy all night....thunder, lightnin’, and such....my kelty vortex weathered the storm with ease, although some of the more thrifty members of our group (who had purchased bargain tents from wally world....only $39.99!!)got soaked to the bone....once again the old adage (you get what you pay for) holds true....

next morning dawned clear and warm....we fished (unsuccessfully....these dixie smallmouths are smarter or pickier than i thought they would be), ate some breakfast, tore down our camp, and hit the river....not a cloud in the sky today....we found a bluff hangin’ right over the river in a deep section, so we all had to climb up there and jump off (about 35 feet....haven’t done that since i was a youngster....oh wait, i forgot, i am still a youngster!!)....we started figuring out how to catch some fish, although they weren’t keepers....everyone still had fun because we all had ultralightweight gear....lots of smallies, some pumpkinseeds, a few largemouths, and one memorable rendezvous with a smiling gar....

made it down to elephant rock and found a suitable campsite....not as much wood, but we built a good fire with bamboo as kindling (which pops like firecrackers we found out)....the kids all had headlamps and made spears out of the bamboo....the full moon came sliding over the top of the bluff and lit up the place like a stadium....fried up what fish we did have (delicioso!!) and made up some onion rings with the rest of the batter.....cut up some taters with onions and carrots and garlic...put em in foil and roasted em in the fire....mmmm again!! cold applesauce and butterscotch puddin and oreos completed the feast!! I was tired and turned in early, but some of the others in our group stayed up late and it’s a good thing they did!! We had pulled our canoes clear up out of the river, but apparently not far enough as the river rose several feet when they turned on the generators up on the white river....our canoes were just about to float off on their own little river trip when we found out about it....close call!!!

woke up late and had a big breakfast....another gorgeous arkansas morning....sent the boys up the river a ways to clean up a messy campsite some inconsiderate campers had left....broke camp and floated our way on down to the confluence of the two rivers....some local guys showed us how to catch trout using corn as bait....the river was running real fast (six generators running) for our upstream run to buffalo city....we decided to give it a go....i think it was the hardest thing i have had to do (physically) in a long, long time....we paddled as hard as we could for over an hour....couldn’t stop or we would get swept away downstream....my son and i were the last to get over to the far side of the river.... some guys came by and offered to tow us but since all the rest of our group had made it, we chose to take a pasadena on the tow and kept on pluggin away until we made it....whew!!!

called the outfitter, bussed us back to our vans, hit the highway (beautiful scenery), got a great meal at the red fern steakhouse in mountain home, drove all night, slept all morning and afternoon, and now i am getting ready to go on back into work tonight....

a great location....i would highly recommend this trip to anyone with even modest canoeing experience....(the picture was not quite as nasty as stik and strat painted it!!!! by the way, i was not able to locate any of your missing items!!!)

looking forward now to seeing everyone over in west virginny....”

“Now that sounds like a great trip!

8)

By the way river otters are very cool!”

“Your trip report almost makes me wish I had gone with you all, instead of going solo!

Glad to see you had such a great time!”

“Sounds like you had as terrible time as we did. Hope to meet up with you next year on that "Nasty Ole" Buffalo River.”

“Sounds awesome, gonzo. I've re-discovered the beauty of paddling trips. Can't think of a better way to spend time in the woods during the warm weather months.”

“it's the perfect alternative to hiking. the forest here gets very hostile this time fo year. the water is the perfect answer.


anywayz, grreat trip report gonzo.sounds like ya'll did it right! glad you saw the gar! sorry bout that campsite, it was stikmon's fault.....


i'll bet that bluff you jumped off of was the place where you can go back into tyhe woods behind it and there's like an old town there.old building foundations all around, a school etc. i went back there one time. i couldn't talk stikmon into it this time. he was too happy to be in the water to leave it. i ferget the name of the old town...buffalo city maybe? when we wnet on labor day, they were running all 8 generators & we were both soloing, so paddling upstream in the white was an impossibility. luckily ,this local guy thought stikmon was cute & towed us.”

“forgot to mention that we saw cat tracks as big as my hand....figured it had to be a cougar....i don't think that bobcats have feet that big....”

“prolly was a puma, gonzo. i have heard them "scream" out there but have never seen one. that sound made my hair stand on end though, lemme tall ya.”