Camping, backpacking, hiking, et al

[thrill]

Was surprised how fast we boogied out to Colorado. Kansas and Eastern CO I-70 has improved a lot since we first went out that way. Left at 4am and blew past our planned stayover (Goodland KS) by 2pm and were in Frisco CO for dinner (with benefit of time zone). Granted, Dreamer -you'd be another couple hours from there.

We usually stay around there, but next time out I'm hoping to press on further -Aspen perhaps, Maroon Bells, Black Canyon of Gunnison, Crested Butte, San Juans, Moab etc.

I spent a lot of time on the front range and in RMNP when I was a kid. My first trip to central CO in that Black Canyon area was eye opening. You can get pretty desolate, pretty fast. It's beautiful, and very wild. The front range is crowded and civilized and the west side of the range is just ranchers, hunters, off the grid'ers. It's real deal mountain folk.

[Freed Roger]

Was surprised how fast we boogied out to Colorado. Kansas and Eastern CO I-70 has improved a lot since we first went out that way. Left at 4am and blew past our planned stayover (Goodland KS) by 2pm and were in Frisco CO for dinner (with benefit of time zone). Granted, Dreamer -you'd be another couple hours from there.

We usually stay around there, but next time out I'm hoping to press on further -Aspen perhaps, Maroon Bells, Black Canyon of Gunnison, Crested Butte, San Juans, Moab etc.

I spent a lot of time on the front range and in RMNP when I was a kid. My first trip to central CO in that Black Canyon area was eye opening. You can get pretty desolate, pretty fast. It's beautiful, and very wild. The front range is crowded and civilized and the west side of the range is just ranchers, hunters, off the grid'ers. It's real deal mountain folk.

Yep. Damn it I know. Another friend couple did it all out there this summer, lots of mountain biking and backpacking breweries etc. My wife isn't as into it all the isolation and as me, but I know she could handle Ouray, Telluride Crested Butte etc. i.e Zion is one of her favorite places.

A few years ago - flew to Albuquerque - Went to Sante Fe, the high and low roads to Taos and touring around there. Enjoyed it a lot.
Same for the flying into Phoenix and then up to Sedona and Flagstaff (your advice, thanks). These places are great compromise for bourgeois outdoorsy travelers like us.

Oddly - we don't get much of the SW cheapish nonstop airfare from STL to ABQ or PHX anymore. Can't remember what we paid, but I know it's now more than doubled

[Freed Roger]

Flat Midwesterners tend to be drawn west - Heading directions other than West is a great road trip too. The advantage there is you tend to have better places to stop and check out along the way (No offense to Kansas and Nebraska etc)

[Freed Roger]

Talked to a NPS ranger from the Ozark National Scenic Riverways who is not a fan of MO's newest state park "Echo Bluff".

He said tbey went in with bulldozers and cleared a bunch of trees, concreted it up and built a bunch of buildings.

I didn't get in there, but pictures seem to bear this out:

[SHOW]

I have mixed feelings. On one hand, it can be like a termite stake. if the massive RV crowed can be congregated in one place, that makes the nearby normal campgrounds better. I do like that some people with accessibility issues can get down there. A negative is my wife might choose that lodge over the tent with all the critters and bugs. It seems kind of wrong though, for the state to do this.
I mean, a campground in the Ozarks with the trees clear cut, WTF!

[Hoot45]

I haven't made a trip to the Current River yet this year, which would be a first in a long time if I still don't get out there this fall. I had no idea the buildout was that huge. I'm hopeful that, like you said, this can be a termite stake for the RV crowds and provide some relief to the campsites.

With the increase of binge drinking parties tarnishing the opportunity for a low key summer float and RV generators disrupting a peaceful sleep in a tent, I haven't had much interest in being on this river. I actually sold my kayaks because I loathe to go there June-August, and spring and fall weekends are harder for me to come by these days. The Current, Jacks Fork, and Eleven Point are gems in an otherwise mediocre landscape and I really worry the state doesn't have the right priorities to keep them in good order.

#getOffMyLawn

[Freed Roger]

I haven't made a trip to the Current River yet this year, which would be a first in a long time if I still don't get out there this fall. I had no idea the buildout was that huge. I'm hopeful that, like you said, this can be a termite stake for the RV crowds and provide some relief to the campsites.

With the increase of binge drinking parties tarnishing the opportunity for a low key summer float and RV generators disrupting a peaceful sleep in a tent, I haven't had much interest in being on this river. I actually sold my kayaks because I loathe to go there June-August, and spring and fall weekends are harder for me to come by these days. The Current, Jacks Fork, and Eleven Point are gems in an otherwise mediocre landscape and I really worry the state doesn't have the right priorities to keep them in good order.

Am lucky to have random weekdays off and it's still pretty wide open/nice down in the Ozarks. There aren't many generators cranking at Pulltite CG. Sites are small and not paved, so that helps.
The couple nights I was down there, it was noisy but mostly the tolerable kind, little kids etc romping around and starting to get fussy. It gets dark in a hurry, so 10PM feels like 11 or so. I'm usually the only one up by a fire. Again -weekday.

However, I floated thru the drunkards on upper-ish Meramec from Onondaga to a bootleg takeout (Thickety Ford Road) on a June weekend. I was down there a month prior on a weekday and it was just me and a guy fishing.
Late April Weekday

[SHOW]

Late June Weekend. Not sure why I expected it to look more like the above. Been a long while since I was near drunk floats.

[SHOW]

Current - wide open on a weekday Pulltite Springs - so damn beautiful.

[SHOW]

Last Friday, got down there with my daughter, more people, but not too bad. Was a bit soured when we paddled away from a few rafters, unly to come up a different flotilla in the mouth of Cavve Springs blasting heinous Bro-Country. But they floated out without a scene, and we later paddled past them in a few minutes. We had to use an outfitter this time, but if you roll your own, it clearly gives more flexibility to avoid the throngs.

[SHOW]

...Gratuitous show and tell. floating the Ozark spring-feds is all fairly new to me, and I'm hooked. Making plans with my wife to take my daughter and teen friends down there at month end. Ironically, i may see about those Echo Bluff cabins, because it may be an easier place to corral squirrely teens not have to drag a bunch of tents and stuff down there.
Eleven Point is on my radar after that.

Last observation, it seems the group floaters/paddlers are generally older. Tend to people in 40s on up , that grew up doing this sort of thing.

[Tim]

I almost died on Bear Creek outside of Springfield while kayaking when it was at flood stage.

I am often hyperbolic but that’s the God’s honest truth. Had my friend not saved me I would have been a statistic. That was 9 years ago. I haven’t kayaked or floated since.

I used to love floating the Buffalo

[Freed Roger]

I almost died on Bear Creek outside of Springfield while kayaking when it was at flood stage.

I am often hyperbolic but that’s the God’s honest truth. Had my friend not saved me I would have been a statistic. That was 9 years ago. I haven’t kayaked or floated since.

I used to love floating the Buffalo

Looking forward to floating the Buffalo someday.
May I ask what happened? Dumped? a strainer? I like to know all the perils.

I try my darndest to be fair-weathered about activities. I have a healthy fear of water and hydraulics. My kid though, I've taken her on G to PG rated outdoor hikes and floats since she was little. She stays pretty relaxed, which is generally a positive trait for pushing thru when stuff happens. THough she is sometimes too relaxed, and trusting of me. A lollygagger. We paddled for hours on the Missouri on a day/stretch where the main hazards were wing dikes. I'd yell at her to get away, and she'd look at me like I was joking, take her sweet time avoiding it while I'm sweating bullets.

Sorry to be a downer here, Speaking of water and perils.
Terrible story, two more swimmers drowned in the Meramec River at local SP the comment section has more tales of woe about that river.

I've put-in with my SUP at that spot of the Meramec and paddled upstream a few miles and then floated back. The river in normal times looks so tame, parts of it you can wade across. I can attest that current at that spot is a beast, way more than it appears. Takes me about 10 minutes of hard paddling to get out of it, into easier upstream paddling. I notice the people using the Meramec to swim or wade there, are on the lower end of the economic spectrum. A church group brought some non-swimmers out and they drowned. There are signs everywhere, but it looks inviting, I guess.

Something to consider about water - people assume you can see and hear someone struggling and save them. People going under tend to be silent, and undergo an instinctive drowning response.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instincti ... g_response

[Hoot45]

Those pictures are making me want to get back out there, Freed. Weekday floating is a good call!

[Tim]

I almost died on Bear Creek outside of Springfield while kayaking when it was at flood stage.

I am often hyperbolic but that’s the God’s honest truth. Had my friend not saved me I would have been a statistic. That was 9 years ago. I haven’t kayaked or floated since.

I used to love floating the Buffalo

Looking forward to floating the Buffalo someday.

I was floating with a very experienced canoer/kayaker and we decided to hit up Bear Creek. Now I have floated for most of my life. My friend, who was in grad school at Missouri State at the time, and I enjoyed getting together for long weekends and floating and camping for two to three days when we could.

Anyway it was in early April, had just rained for like 5 days straight, and we put in. Now in my infinite wisdom wore my trout fishing waders.

We were rolling. No need to paddle. You essentially just steered. I used to know how far we went, but it was a few miles in less than an hour. I mean we were booking it down this creek.

We get to where a concrete bridge passes over the creek. We managed to pull off to the side to gauge how we wanted to attack this, as the concrete supports were sticking out of the creek to support the bridge and the water was just slamming up against them.

Think something similar to this, however many more supports.
Spoiler'd for size.

[SHOW]

We decide we can make it, but he goes first. He makes it through no problem, pulls off to the side and breaks out his camcorder.

I go. I'm sucked straight into the concrete support. The kayak snaps in half, I flip upside down and my waders begin filling with water (the more I tell the story the less anxious I get - hence exposure therapy is good for PTSD). I am being swept down stream all the while knowing that I am not making it to med school in three months and I am going to die. Oddly enough I was at piece with this. I calmly began trying to unbuckle my waders. Again, I am going down backwards, head barely above water and headed straight toward and bunch of trees that have fallen and are sticking out of the creek. I'll either be trapped or I will hit my head. Either way I am done.

Out of nowhere I feel my friend grab my upper arm. He had managed to wade out into the creek in the nick of time and just where I was headed. He drug my back to the shore. I was freaked out.

I have the video somewhere of me being slammed into the concrete support. I will see if I can find it.