Fellas,
It haz been a long time comin', but it finally rained over in the Ozarks. I figgered my paddlin' wuz done til the fall, but lo 'n behold, the Big Piney had some water. Since I quit my day job this wuz the first time I up 'n sez "let's hit the road fer Arkansaw?" Miz Bear sez "okay by me". I put the racks on the truck 'n wuz aimin' ta drive back ta git my canoe, when I looked at the guviment water gauge agin. It looked mitey low ta me. Ya gotta add 'er take away ta know what kinda water iz really flowin'....accordin' ta the ole geezer gauge. I took away when I shoulda added. I took the rack off 'n threw a Yahoo in the back of the pickup. I figgered the river wuz gwine ta be boney 'n slow. I wuz wrong.
The expedishun begun by Richard (who jest made hiz first run on the Piney last Sunday) callin' out fer paddlers. By the time Miz Bear 'n me found a hotel Monday nite (a long sad tale itsownself) the group wuz up ta 4. Next day 17-18 folks showed up. There wuz one 'er two first timers. There wuz women, young kids, twenty 'n thirty somethings 'n a fine geezer turnout (includin' the one who warned us not ta run the Lower Buffalo 'n try ta cross over the White River when the dam wuz runnin' full blast).
We come upon a group a kids (8-14) frum Texas on a "learn ta paddle" expedishun. They had begun a few days back on some lake in Texas where the fella in charge showed 'em some strokes 'n tole 'em what wuz comin'. After the lake, they paddled anuther river, then came ta the Piney fer the whitewater day. Their floatation wuz innertubes tied inside the boat. They done great, even in some purty big water....altho sometimes they fergot rule #1 Keep The Water Under the Boat. :wink: They are on the Upper Buffalo today. That part of Arkansaw had even more rain over the last few days.
It wuz in the upper 80's yesterday, but the sun kept mostly behind the haze. Some of the fellas wuz ill....(used a "sick day")....but they wuz gittin' better az the day wore on. :mrgreen: A river iz good medicine. We declared us lucky ta be paddlin' good water on such a nice day in mid-June. [Chad, some of the kayakers run the Mulberry the day before. It had good water too. I reckon ya know bout the rain.]
It aint az eazy ta jump up, load boats 'n gear, hit the highroad at 3 p.m., fight the mother truckers on I-40, fight the Methodists 'n the Mexicans fer a motel room til near bout dark, hit the sack in a motel bed, git up, drive anuther 45 miles ta meet, then shuttle 10 miles up 'n down the mountains on one of the worst gravel roads ta the put-in of a long river az it wuz 10 years ago.
I wuz wore down by the time I made it halfway down. When I got off, I loaded up, put on some dry clothes 'n drove all the way back across Arkansaw. It wuz late when we made it in last nite. Roscoe Brown 'n Twyla looked at us like "....well, how come ya take us this time...." I tole Roscoe that some Mexican bandit like Ole Pedro Flores would have made a hot tamale outta him. It aint hard ta throw a scare inta a cat. :wink:
regards
bearridge
ps Chuck, they didnt even have no skeeters.
It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims. Aristotle
It haz been a long time comin', but it finally rained over in the Ozarks. I figgered my paddlin' wuz done til the fall, but lo 'n behold, the Big Piney had some water. Since I quit my day job this wuz the first time I up 'n sez "let's hit the road fer Arkansaw?" Miz Bear sez "okay by me". I put the racks on the truck 'n wuz aimin' ta drive back ta git my canoe, when I looked at the guviment water gauge agin. It looked mitey low ta me. Ya gotta add 'er take away ta know what kinda water iz really flowin'....accordin' ta the ole geezer gauge. I took away when I shoulda added. I took the rack off 'n threw a Yahoo in the back of the pickup. I figgered the river wuz gwine ta be boney 'n slow. I wuz wrong.
The expedishun begun by Richard (who jest made hiz first run on the Piney last Sunday) callin' out fer paddlers. By the time Miz Bear 'n me found a hotel Monday nite (a long sad tale itsownself) the group wuz up ta 4. Next day 17-18 folks showed up. There wuz one 'er two first timers. There wuz women, young kids, twenty 'n thirty somethings 'n a fine geezer turnout (includin' the one who warned us not ta run the Lower Buffalo 'n try ta cross over the White River when the dam wuz runnin' full blast).
We come upon a group a kids (8-14) frum Texas on a "learn ta paddle" expedishun. They had begun a few days back on some lake in Texas where the fella in charge showed 'em some strokes 'n tole 'em what wuz comin'. After the lake, they paddled anuther river, then came ta the Piney fer the whitewater day. Their floatation wuz innertubes tied inside the boat. They done great, even in some purty big water....altho sometimes they fergot rule #1 Keep The Water Under the Boat. :wink: They are on the Upper Buffalo today. That part of Arkansaw had even more rain over the last few days.
It wuz in the upper 80's yesterday, but the sun kept mostly behind the haze. Some of the fellas wuz ill....(used a "sick day")....but they wuz gittin' better az the day wore on. :mrgreen: A river iz good medicine. We declared us lucky ta be paddlin' good water on such a nice day in mid-June. [Chad, some of the kayakers run the Mulberry the day before. It had good water too. I reckon ya know bout the rain.]
It aint az eazy ta jump up, load boats 'n gear, hit the highroad at 3 p.m., fight the mother truckers on I-40, fight the Methodists 'n the Mexicans fer a motel room til near bout dark, hit the sack in a motel bed, git up, drive anuther 45 miles ta meet, then shuttle 10 miles up 'n down the mountains on one of the worst gravel roads ta the put-in of a long river az it wuz 10 years ago.
I wuz wore down by the time I made it halfway down. When I got off, I loaded up, put on some dry clothes 'n drove all the way back across Arkansaw. It wuz late when we made it in last nite. Roscoe Brown 'n Twyla looked at us like "....well, how come ya take us this time...." I tole Roscoe that some Mexican bandit like Ole Pedro Flores would have made a hot tamale outta him. It aint hard ta throw a scare inta a cat. :wink:
regards
bearridge
ps Chuck, they didnt even have no skeeters.
It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims. Aristotle
