Last night we drove to the put-in spot for a float down the Buffalo River. This was America's first National Scenic River, and kayaking it has long been on our bucket list. We're in the neighborhood, but we could think of reasons not to go through with it. One was the fact that the weather was unsettled, with chances of storms. Another was the fact that Mark's back had been bothering him. Another was the high price of getting a shuttle set up to make this 12-mile kayak trip. But we decided that it would be a shame to miss out on this bucket list item when we were camping only four miles away. Besides, when we checked the weather forecast this morning, it predicted the storms wouldn't arrive until evening. What could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River?
We had two options for making this float trip. Option one was to rent a tandem kayak from Buffalo Outdoor Center for $100, and pay them $46 to shuttle our vehicle to the take-out spot. Option two was to use our own inflatable tandem kayak, but then they would charge us $81 for the very same shuttle. That's the most expensive shuttle service we have ever used for a kayak trip.
But we paid the $81 (plus tax) to have the staff from Buffalo Outdoor Center drive our pickup from the public put-in spot to the take-out spot in the national forest campground at Kyle's Landing. Besides, what could possibly go wrong?
We inflated our kayak, and loaded it down with picnic supplies and sun screen. We handed our pickup keys over to the driver at the put-in spot. We needed to carry the boat a ways to get to the best entry point, and Mark's back was already hurting. Then it happened. When Denisa bent down to pick up her end of the kayak, she pulled something in her back. Could Mark's back ache be contagious? Now we have two kayakers with bum backs! But we both managed to flop into the boat and started our journey down the Buffalo River going under the bridge at the town of Ponca, Arkansas.
What else could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River? Another reason we decided to take this trip was that the timing to float this river seems to be so tricky. In early spring the water is often too high to safely float the Buffalo. By the middle of summer, the water is often too low to float the river, and kayakers end up carrying their boat more than sitting in it. While the water flow this day was supposed to be adequate, we immediately found that we were getting hung up on the rocks over and over. In fact, we came to a dead stop that Mark had to push us through in the first half-mile. That's not good on a sore back! What else could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River?
So we stopped to remove the skeg on the bottom of our boat before it got ripped off by the rocks. We wouldn't have the stabilizing effects of the skeg for the rest of the trip. What could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River?
We had gone through enough rapids within the first mile that we already had a couple inches of water in the kayak. That's when Mark noticed the bubbles. Somehow we had a little hole in the floor section of our inflatable boat. What?!? While we had delicious picnic supplies with us, we had no patch kit or air pump. What could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River?
We found that if we held a finger over the hole, it would slow down the air leak. But its location made that almost impossible--especially when we needed both hands to row through the rapids. So Mark wedged a water bottle and a plastic trash bag against the hole and we hoped for the best as we floated beside the beautiful rock ledges of the Buffalo River Valley.The river water was cold in April, and we had cloudy skies all day with impending storms. We certainly didn't want to dump over into this water. But we took on more water with every set of rapids we traversed. After we had paid for our vehicle shuttle, the cashier told us that there were over 80 sets of rapids within the twelve miles we would be floating. What?!? What could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River? Lots!
We only have pictures of the placid sections of water between the rapids. That's because we had to concentrate on getting our skeg-less boat into the best position to ride through the rapids over and over. One couldn't be taking pictures while that was going on. It's not just riding through the strongest current, but we also had to avoid the shallowest water and the biggest rocks. As the water gets lower in the season, they quit putting in boats at the Ponca bridge. Then they opt for a shorter float trip that starts at Steele Creek Campground, a few miles down the river. That probably would have been a good choice to avoid some really shallow early sections today too.
In between the rapids and the shallow sections we did enjoy the beauty that puts this river on every kayaker's bucket list. While the storm was still pending, the winds whipped up to a 15-miles-per-hour-head-wind that we had to row against. What could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River?
That's when Denisa looked down and saw that her trusty boat shoes had a blow out. While she loves her Keens and has several pairs, we've had to reglue the sole on each pair as they age. She probably should have checked these this morning because that bottom sole was really flopping off. That could make hiking a little tricky today.
We should just sit back and put up our feet (with Denisa's broken shoe), rest our sore backs, and enjoy the scenery as we floated down the Buffalo in our skeg-less boat that was leaking air.
We were about four miles down the river we caught sight of "the big bluff." This is the biggest rock wall along the Buffalo River, and we had to take a picture from quite some distance just to get the whole thing in the frame. You might notice that we had caught up with several boats. That's because this was an especially tricky part of the river and they were plotting their strategy and gathering their courage to go through the rapids ahead.
If we zoom in for a picture of that big rock wall, we can see the limestone ledges where we were hiking yesterday.
Remember yesterday's blog when we were standing on those rock ledges and looking down at the Buffalo far below?
We had thought we were near the top of the rock wall at the time.
Now looking at the big bluff from the river, we see that the line of light-colored rock is about half-way down on that 550-foot-tall wall.
We made it through the tricky rapids and relished in making it this far unscathed. Maybe we should ask, "What could possibly go right on the Buffalo River?"
As we floated past the Big Bluff, we noticed a guy with lots of gear taking photos. We talked to him as we floated by, and he let us know that we were in some of the pictures he just took of the Big Bluff. He let us know to check his facebook page "Floating the Ozarks" to find our picture. So we include this rare picture of the two of us in our kayak from his posting. His faacebook description was, "Big Bluff defies scale in person and on video. There's nothing else like this one in the Ozarks. This nice couple was behind me for a bit and went by later on. I told them they'd be on my page so hope they see it!" We obviously did see it, as did the 4,000 other facebook followers that gave it a thumbs up, and made 119 comments on this particular picture.
We had a hike planned this day, and we were armed with good information on how to find the trail head. We were told to just watch for all the boats parked on the sand bar. But just to be sure, Mark had put a pin on the trail head on his phone.
On this questionable weather day in the middle of the week, there were no line of boats parked to alert us to the hidden trailhead. A particularly rigorous set of rapids kept us from checking the GPS for the dropped pin. We missed the trailhead! By the time we realized it, we were 400 feet past the trailhead and on the wrong side of the river! The current was obviously too fast to just turn the boat around and go back. Our well-planned stop was in jeopardy because we would have to get across those rapids to get to the trail head on the other side of the river.
It wasn't pretty and we both got wet, but we made it across the chilly water. The uneven rocky river bottom necessitated us linking arms in hopes that one of us could keep the other up when we stumbled in the current. The water was only up to our thighs, but it was running quickly in its attempt to knock us over. We finally found the hidden trail head on the other side of the river, and you can barely see Denisa's green blouse through the heavily wooded section in the picture below.
Denisa was particularly graceful on this one-mile hike as she had to high step because of her flopping shoe sole. What could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River? She tripped more than once under these conditions, but we finally made it to our hiking destination--Hemmed in Hollow. Touted as the tallest waterfall in Arkansas, we were lucky to have water coming over the falls because it is often a dry fall.
That whisper of water coming over the top ledge would bend and move on its way down from the 209-foot drop. This is the tallest waterfall between the Rockies and the Appalachian Mountains, and we had it totally to ourselves.
The shallow pools of water at the bottom were alive with tiny dots with tails.
It looked like there had been a population explosion of the frogs of Hemmed in Hollow.
If you stood below the waterfall you were guaranteed to get wet as the wind blew the water in every direction.
We sure wish we would have brought a snack on this hike, as this would have been a lovely place for our picnic. But we were so flustered about floating past the trailhead that we didn't think to bring our food. But now we took a little time to think how blessed we were to be wandering His wonders.
We walked the mile back to the river, already dreading the trip back over the Buffalo River with Denisa's floppy shoe. We managed to find a shallow section to get us halfway across, and the picture showed the rocks that made stumbling across so tricky.
That hike was about 8.4 miles down the river from our put-in spot, so that means we had survived about 60 of rapids so far. What could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River? We were now in a rhythm on how to handle the rapids. Mark had politely asked Denisa not to paddle any more. When she saw a big rock to avoid on her right, her instinct was to paddle on the right to get away from it. But without the skeg, that movement caused the back end of the kayak to turn sharply right, therefore whacking Mark and the back side of the boat on that large rock we wanted to avoid.
As we floated away from the tall rock ledges we saw more wildlife.
These pointy nose turtles live in the river and often come out to sun bathe on the rocks. What could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River?
Snakes also live in the river, and this guy was swimming entirely too close to our boat.
Since we had already missed our only planned stop, Denisa was watching the GPS carefully for our take-out spot. That would be terribly wrong if we missed that too.
We took one last selfie to prove that we had made it through the adversities that the Buffalo River had thrown at us today. But as you can see from the the blue skies peeking out from the clouds, we made the trip without storms on this questionable weather day.
We would be lying if we said we weren't a little relieved to see the sign for Kyles Landing that heralded the end of our twelve-mile float on the Buffalo River. Both of our backs were hurting as we carried our boat up the hill to where our pickup was parked. A man that works for a local float company watched us unload, and commented that it was a good sign that we were still smiling and talking to each other. He explained that he has seen many couples that weren't speaking to each other after disagreeing on the best way to get a tandem boat through the 80 rapids of the Buffalo.
The leak on the floor of the boat was slowed by the pressure from the water bottle that Mark wedged against it. The side chambers of the boat are independent, so we were always able to stay afloat. We had to empty the water out of the boat multiple times`after going through rapids, and the bottom of our boat scraped on the rocks too many times to count. We made the 12-mile kayak route plus the 2-mile hike, so we felt successful. But we can smile now because we know some of the things that could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River, and we were a little relieved to check it off our bucket list.
P.S. As we drove back to the town of Ponca, we came to appreciate the high price of moving our vehicle to Kyle's Landing. It was a 15-mile drive, but because of the winding rough roads it took thirty minutes to drive it each way. Maybe $81 was not such a bad price after all.
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