Canoe The Ozarks

Last September we were floating the beautiful Buffalo River when we discovered what is now one of our favorite campsites on any river.

(Check my earlier post “Best Campsite on the Buffalo” under ” campsites”  on the right side/menu)

We enjoyed it so much we vowed to return the next year.  Well, we kept our vows…

Return to our favorite campsite on the Buffalo River, AR

Another pledge we made was to make this site our base camp for the entire float trip.  And like most of our trips, we would be on the river for two nights and three days.  But this time, we were looking forward to sleeping in the next morning, knowing that we didn’t have to disassemble our camp.

And

knowing that we would have the whole day to immerse ourselves in this peaceful place of clear waters, rolling hills, and open skies.

And so the first morning greeted us with an early summer sunrise that perhaps came sooner than expected.  The early light found our faces as we awakened beneath the open sky.  Forget sleeping in, get on some coffee, let the day begin.  After a couple of cups of “gravel bar” coffee and some campfire toasted bagels, we are ready to hit the river.

We are going to paddle back upstream and explore a creek that enters the river.  It’s nice that the current isn’t that strong along this particular stretch so it’s not too difficult to paddle upstream.

We make it to the creek with ease and park our canoe by the outlet.  We walk up the creek awhile and marvel at the crystal clear pools of water that beg to be snorkeled.  The water is quite chilly yet there are no familiar signs(vegetation specific to springs)that this is a spring fed creek.  This pretty little creek that meanders deep into the woods needs more investigation.  Make a note in our journal.

Before we leave the creek outlet, we grab a few pieces of choice firewood from a nearby beach that happens to be sandy.  Yes, you will more than  occasionally encounter some sandy beaches on an Ozark River.

Sandy beach on the Buffalo River

Ok, so there’s no palm trees here, but it’s another curious feature that’s fun to encounter on the river.  We have snorkeled in clear waters with sandy bottoms and believe me, you do get that sense of being an “ocean diver.”
Fantastic feeling!

As we paddle away from the beach, we fish the banks of the river on our way back to the campsite.  We only catch a few small Smallies but we’re still having fun.
We glide into our campsite around one and relax with a nice lunch in the shade at the backside(edge of the woods)of our campsite.  We don’t need a canopy.

After lunch, we spend the day swimming, snorkeling…
(paddle to 2nd post a bit later)

by William Hughes.