Going the Wrong Way - Ozarks Bound

[hooky]

Life has gotten in the way of a trip to the island this year. Back up plan is now an early October paddle trip in the Ozarks on the Current River. Just curious if anyone on here has any advice or info from their experiences on that river.

5 days/4 nights is the plan and looking to do 12-15 miles/day.

[hooky]

We drove down to the Two Rivers Campground on the Current River. We caught a shuttle the next morning to Baptist Camp from someone I've become acquainted with from BWCA.com (Thanks Terry!) and got into the river at lunch time. Gravel bar camping for the next few nights. A couple of really clear nights, bookended by stormy weather. The current is spring fed, full of trout for the first part of the float, transitioning to smallmouth on the last half of the float. Bugs weren't bad. No snakes, but we saw Otters, Eagles, Ospreys and unfortunately a bunch of people. It wasn't what I expected with all the drive in options to the river. You'd be on a beautiful stretch of water and then look river left to see a pickup truck and couple of guys sitting in chairs, drinking beer. Don't get me wrong. I love to spend time on the banks of a river and cold beer is the one of the things that makes that even better. As we got further downstream, especially on Saturday, there would be groups of people sitting on the gravel bars with chairs, umbrellas, folding tables and coolers.

We still had a good time and we're glad we did it. We just had the wrong expectations going into this trip. Here are a few pictures when we had the river to ourselves.

Cave Spring


Morning Camp


Down River View for Lunch

[Kelly]

I'm envious! I haven't made it to Missouri yet this year--usually I visit springs and backpack on the Ozark Trail. How was the water level? Did you go by Pulltite Spring?

[Ingo]

Sounds like a nice trip. I assume it's pretty flat water judging from the boats? Any portaging?

[hooky]

The water levels started out floatable, but not high. lots of class 1 with a couple of class 2. It's no coincidence that all my photos are of flat water or when I was out of the boat. I took my Mad River Independence instead of a kayak. No rocker, all keel made it tough for me in the small, twisty, swift parts of the upper river. I actually pinned it in some wood and cracked the gel coat on each side behind the seat where it started to fold. I'm lucky i was able to roll out and get clear before it wrapped. It was one I should have walked and I went into thinking I could make it and it was a dumb mistake on the morning of day 2. We were a few miles south of Round Spring Saturday night when the upper watershed got 5" of rain. Had that happened on night 1 instead 3, we'd have been in big trouble as we were about 2 above the water level that would have been rising an inch/minute right before midnight.




Montauk rose 9 feet and Akers rose 5. Flood level at Akers is 4 feet. The only portage was over a low water bridge on day 1, which was likely 4-5 feet under water saturday into sunday wee hours. It was rising steadily when we were on the last 11 mile stretch. It poured rain on us that afternoon too.

[Ingo]

Whew! 5" of rain isn't good on any river!

[hooky]

Yeah, it was pretty sobering to look back and realize how lucky we were. It could have been a deadly situation.