Ozark Canyon Float, 10/15/05
Was it the Ozark Canyon Float or the Thomas Family Float. Either way it was totally awesome. The float was from Pulltite to Round Spring on the Current River. Jennifer, Nicole, and I set out from home around 7:00 A.M. and got to the put in, run shuttle, and shoved off from shore around 11:45.
The trees are changing colors in the Ozarks and are displaying brilliant colors of reds, oranges, and yellows. Along the banks are fall flowers of blues and light purples. The water crystal clear as Nicole was pointing out the fish below. She also pointed out a huge hornet nest hanging from a limb above our heads as I was trying to get her to paddle so we would miss the log jam in the middle of a small riffle. I managed on my own as she turned around a smiled at me.
Why was Nicole in front of my boat and not Jennifer? Well Jennifer has abandoned me and bought herself a new 14 ft Mohawk Odyssey solo canoe. She said she is tired of me dumping her in the cold winter streams in the Ozarks and would like to do that herself. So I let her. She did say the water was cold as I paddled around picking up carnage. We lost the top of our basket to the coffee pot was all.
All of us were tired and was in bed by 9:00 P.M. The moon was so bright I was checking the flash lights to make sure they were off. I was out of bed by 7:00 because I just could not sleep any more. I could see where the sun was getting ready to crest the hill top and placed clothing to dry that had been left out in the dew over night. The fog was moving fairly quickly down stream with light breeze.
Jennifer woke up about 9:00 and as we were sitting drinking our morning coffee a young Bald Eagle flew by. After everything dried out and breakfast of cereal and milk we started for the take out at 12:00ish. We arrived at the take out at 12:45 wishing we had a couple more days to paddle.
We did give toast to our OMP family out in the Grand Canyon Saturday evening and also I sent one Terry Price’s way as he asked us to. And I can not believe I did it with Budweiser. Why did I buy that nasty stuff? Because of that this was only a four beer float. Yes I said a four beer float. I going to see my shrink tomorrow.
Hope to see you all on the river soon, Bobby Thomas. |
