Well, Eric and I are back from our camping trip. We stopped in Branson on our first night, on the way down and stayed in a hotel there. Eric is a goober.. he thought that was the coolest thing, “living” in a hotel. We did some stuff on the strip there and got an early start the next day down to Arkansas.
We hiked some around Lost Valley where we traversed through a cave to come out into the canyon on the other side and hike the mountain up to the very top and Eden Falls upper cave. There wasn’t enough water to make the fall at the huge lower cave though.. during the spring there’s a curtain waterfall over part of the long sweeping curved top of the cave. Not for us though this year. Eric just about stepped on a snake on the climb up but he didn’t freak out! Props to him.
The two days on the river were absolutely perfect.. upper 80′s and bright blue sky with just a few puffy clouds! Awesome weather and a great trip along the most beautiful river I can think to canoe down. We did the upper middle area from Ponca to Pruitt. Every bend has a huge stone bluff, Big Bluff is the largest of them at over 500 feet tall.. and a set of rapids at each windy bend.. some are pretty fast and loud even in early June still. It’s just amazing all along the river.. there’s a half mile hike to a 200′+ waterfall too, the Hemmed-in-Hollows fall. It’s just a gorgeous place there in the Boston Mountains.
We made camp on a nice sandy beach on the river and watched what seemed like a million fireflies sparkle on the river and the cliff across it like they were competing against the stars in the sky! We got off to an early morning start as the fog lifted from the river. Eric was a big help as he learned to paddle hard in the rapids.. getting him to coordinate spinning the canoe by back paddling was a little challenging so I just had him paddle faster which he took it upon himself to do. Next year I think we’ll take two kayak’s and I’m sure he’ll learn fast. We might do a trip a little farther downstream that is a tad tamer.. I don’t know yet.
Here’s just a few of the pictures I took of the trip if you are interested in seeing a little of it.
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June 5th, 2008 at 9:53 am
I enjoyed the pictures. Glad you had fun. Gives me ideas for me and the boys in 5 years or so.
-K
June 15th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Nice pictures. Well all but that one, you know, that one w/ feet in it. I could have went w/o seeing your feet… aggghhhhh…… Looks like you and Eric had a relaxing time.