Wow what a day yesterday. Brother took us on a float trip in canoes down the Buffalo River in Arkansas. The section we floated is a grade one white water river, open only in winter and spring, something we have never done before. Duncan went with us in the canoe, when Dick could keep him in. He bailed out several times. At the very beginning he bailed out twice before we could get him settled in to stay. This was a brand new experience for a nervous puppy. He was not at all sure he wanted to be in the canoe.
How to describe the experience? It was ten miles of aqua green water with the bottom ranging from small gravel to huge boulders and great sheets of limestone or sand stone, from ankle deep to over our heads so we could not see the bottom through the slightly cloudy, from the limestone, water, from smooth aqua pools to rapid riffles over dark cobbles, some a simple fast riffle, some faster drops with large boulders to maneuver around, some almost small waterfalls to go over, some straight shots, some sudden turns in the riffle or at the bottom. Twice there were close calls. The worst was when we wound up going through a tree in the river and when we got through could not find Duncan. He had gone overboard with a leash attached and it took a few seconds to find him. Another time we went over as small waterfall with a solid wall of water to enter at the bottom, I hollered and Duncan jumped out again. By the time we got him back near the canoe we were headed over another riffle on which we got hung up long enough for DH to drag Duncan back in the canoe by his collar.
We took a break in canoeing and walked up a feeder stream to the tallest waterfall east of the Rockies. The wind was blowing the water sideways in great drifts across the valley.
Wildflowers were in bloom in the woods as we walked up to the waterfall. it was spectacular. Spring beauties, Wood anemone, Wood Betony, purple and yellow violets, buttercups, wild phlox, rock phlox, tiny wild blue iris, Bell Flower.
It was a wonderful day. I did not take my camera for fear of getting dumped with the dog in the canoe but I found a series of pictures on Webshots that someone else took of the same section of the river. The waterfall pictures in the Webshots album are not a place we went but we did see where that stream emptied into the Buffalo River.
When we reached the take out point our car had been brought to us and we just left the canoes on the bank.
We slept well that night.
Toads are singing singing today.
We visited civil war battlefield today.
There were tiny pale blue and white 4 petaled flowers in bloom in the “grass” , mouse eared chickweed, gill over the ground.
I cooked my special version of venison loin chops for dinner.
After dinner we played the game – Worst Case Scenario and laughed until we cried.
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