For Memorial Day weekend this year, we floated on the Buffalo River. This would be the first time we had heard "canoeing" referred to as "floating", and also the first time we agreed to canoe without first knowing the distance ahead of time. We "floated" (paddled and tried not to flip) 20 miles in two days, with a break of camping on rocks in between. Turns out, east nowhere Arkansas is gorgeous, and we didn't hear a single banjo. We put in at Hasty, Arkansas in the afternoon on Sunday. About two minutes in to the trip, three of the four canoes flipped, flinging food, drink, and personal items out to be claimed by the river. Thankfully, my eagle scout husband managed to keep his bride out of the water, for which I was extremely grateful. Although the trip began on a down note, our buoyant attitudes insisted on fun being had by all, wet or dry.
We saw beautiful scenery, including a gorgeous waterfall we found by scaling a steep, muddy incline. Pictures really don't do it justice. After paddling about 10 miles, we made camp on a rock beach and built a campfire. We managed to still have a delicious dinner of cold fried chicken, "rock steak", hot dogs, chips and s'mores, and we more or less all slept poorly in our tents on rocks. But what an experience! The stars were crazy bright in the sky, and the sound of rushing water while we slept was fantastic. (except when I half-way woke up in the night, afraid we were going to be washed away, but was comforted strangely with the idea that several of the others would be washed away first and we could use their screams as warning...lol) We woke up with the sun, reloaded the canoes, and continued with the last half of the trip. Only one more canoe flip happened, we saw lots of sunning turtles, and one horrifically large snake. Some people swam out to a rope swing over the water and risked a jump out of a tree, and we saw/canoed to small caves at the bottom of cliff faces. Finally, we got to the end point in Wollum, Arkansas, and after a few hours of waiting for some of the guys to go get cars from the put in point and then loading up the cars, we drove the two hours home. Fast food, a hot shower, and aloe for our radiating sun burns later, and I passed out in my soft, rock-less bed. Adventure complete!