Current River, Jacks Fork River, and Eleven Point River
April 20-29 2019
By Tracy Hays
I have decided to begin my trip report with the very last thing that happened just to get this out of the way. When our trip was finished, we loaded up our boats and returned to the Cane Bluff put-in on the Eleven Point River to retrieve my vehicle. I found that a kayak had been stolen from the roof rack and a window had been smashed out and miscellaneous items had been stolen from my vehicle. We went to town and filed a report with the County Sheriff and I also posted what happened on a Facebook group site dedicated to the three rivers we had just finished paddling. The people that belong to this group love these rivers and were very upset with the bad news I shared with them. The post has been shared many times so I’m hopeful I may someday recover my kayak. Regardless of this incident we all had a fantastic trip.
Okay, enough about that, let’s talk about our trip and boy was it a good one. On April 19th Tracy and Janet met Merlin and his wonderful dog Sheba at Montauk State Park Missouri. We had a nice dinner at the lodge there. We were kind of shocked to find that the campground was completely full. However, it was Easter weekend this year. Last year, one weekend earlier in April, hardly anyone was there. This year the campground felt like a festival atmosphere. There were kids on bikes, people playing catch and others fishing. Loud music blasted from different campers, campfires all over and every kind of RV you can imagine. It did quiet down not too long after dark so we could get some sleep. It got pretty cold and all through the night in our tent we could hear forced air furnaces going on and off in the RVs that surrounded us. Kind of sad this is a lot of people’s definition of camping.
Current River Day 1. We packed up and left the campground by 8 a.m. and went to Cedar Grove to unload and rig our boats. By 10 a.m. we drove to Two Rivers and left Merlin’s van there. The round-trip shuttle from Cedar Grove to Two Rivers is 104 miles and took about 2.5 hours. We were on the river by 1 p.m. and saw our first bald eagle within 5 minutes. The water at Cedar Grove was within 12” of the top of the low water Bridge, at least two feet higher than last year’s level. We stopped at Medlock spring, looked at its pretty little waterfall, and then paddled on to Welsh Spring. We thought someone was camping there as we arrived because of smoke, but the smoke we saw was not a campfire but some huge downed logs that someone had set fire to at least a day before, and they were still smoldering. We looked around at the ruins of the Old Grist Mill that was later converted into a hospital / Spa then had lunch. While we were having lunch a Park Service law enforcement officer showed up in his pickup. Apparently, someone had reported the fire. So, there we were at the scene of the crime and it soon became obvious we were the prime suspects. The officer asked what we knew about the fire then asked for our IDs and wrote down all of our info. He said he was going back to his truck to get something to put out the fire and told us to hang around and he would tell us where the best campsites were. Then another officer showed up and yet another, all three were armed. It was a little intimidating and we weren’t sure if we were being detained or not. We were anxious to go but felt like we should stay put so we didn’t look guilty. To ease the tension Janet and I started hauling river water with a dry-bag and a bailer to dump on the fire while chatting with the two officers that arrived last. After six or seven loads of water were dumped on the fire officer #one yelled at us to STOP!!! because he was conducting an investigation and came back with a camera. The second officer who had been watching us dump water on the fire told us that the first officer was a fire investigator. Uh oh, now he can add tampering with evidence to our charges. With that my mind began to wander and started drawing loose parallels to the situation that Arlo found himself in after that famous Thanksgiving dinner all those years ago, and our own current situation. The difference being that Arlo’s situation happened the day after Thanksgiving and ours was happening the day before Easter, and he was guilty and we were not. I was just about to sing a bar of Alice’s Restaurant (figured it couldn’t hurt, and I think I remember Arlo recommended that) when officer #one came up to talk to us. We overheard on his radio that “no information on his three suspects have come back”. After that officer #one told us we were free to go and so we did just that. We paddled down to Cave Springs and set up camp here. At dark we were treated to a wonderful concert of whippoorwill with a chorus of frogs. A nearly full moon made for a bright night and we paddled 13 miles today. The night before Easter is the day Janet and I met 39 years ago, so it was a great way to celebrate our anniversary.
Day 2 Easter morning. When I crawled out of the tent just at sunrise, I was completely surprised to find colored Easter eggs scattered about the camp. Janet and I were both amazed. It’s been many years since either of us has been on the receiving end of an Easter egg hunt. This is all such a thoughtful and sweet gesture by Merlin. We had a few chocolates so we scattered them around before Merlin got up. It made for a pretty special and memorable Easter for us all. We paddled to Pulltite Spring and walked the trail to the spring and cabin. It’s such a beautiful place. We saw lots of nice campsites just below Cave Springs. The Dogwood and Redbud trees were all in full bloom, as well as many bluebells and other wildflowers blooming on the banks, which made for a beautiful paddle. We thought about stopping at the Round Springs take out but just as we got there I saw a park ranger law enforcement truck cross the bridge. We had seen enough of him yesterday. We’ve paddled about a mile past Round Springs and found a nice gravel bar to set up camp and had a roaring campfire.
Day 3 Today we were making such good time with the fast water we went all the way to the take out at Two Rivers and got there by 2 pm. We loaded everything in Merlin’s van and drove back to Cedar Grove where my car had been left and camped there. It was a nice camp with lightning bugs, frogs and whippoorwills. We paddled a total of 45 miles on the Current River that ran fast and was crystal clear.
Jacks Fork River Day 1. We are on the road by 9 a.m. and took the back way from Cedar Grove to the Prongs put-in on the Jacks Fork River. We had our boats unloaded and rigged by 11:30 and ran our shuttle to Two Rivers and we’re on the river by 2:30 pm. The Prongs to Two Rivers round trip took 2.5 hours and is about 100 miles. There was one short portage where we drug our boats around a strainer near the put in then paddled through the big culverts at the low water crossing bridge and we were on our way. We made camp about 1 mile past the Highway 17 Bridge at Buck Hollow where we put in last year. We paddled eight and a half miles today. This section of river was really fun with lots of fast water with small drops and rock dodging. Then shallow gravel bars that needed close attention to avoid walking. We all agreed we’d probably rate this upper section of the Jacks Fork a Class 2. We had a beautiful camp with a cliff face on river left and gravel bar river right. There was lots of lightning bugs tonight then a light shower so we all went to bed. The shower didn’t last long but the sky remains cloudy all night keeping it nice and cool. The day was high 70s which at times seemed hot.
Day 2. We had light showers most of the day off and on but it was warm and pleasant. The river is so clear you can see the bottom even in the deep holes that are maybe ten or twelve feet down. Lots and lots of turtles. It’s a fun river at this flow, fast and bumpy with lots of rock dodging and lots of strainers. Saw several snakes swimming today we believe are water moccasins. We paddled about 18 miles today and camped at Reimer’s. The sky looked threatening, so we got the river wing set up just in time for the rain to start. It rained all night long.
Day 3. We didn’t get going until about 10 a.m. because of the rain and cold temperatures. We paddled a mostly unpleasant 19 miles to Eminence in what was sometimes pounding rain. We passed a creek that was really kicking and dumping lots of brown water into the Jacks Fork and turned the whole river to chocolate. Every little gully was gushing full today and there were lots of mini waterfalls. There was also lots of floating wood and debris and some very tricky strainers. We managed to not get into trouble though. We had decided to paddle to the take out today. Sheba was soaking wet and shivering so we stopped at Lyons Ballpark in Eminence to take a break under the shelter roof and have lunch. A sheriff drove by eyeballing us, and then a park ranger drove by doing the same and then he drove by again. The third time the park ranger drove by Merlin went to talk to him. We were told that the river was closed and expected to flood soon, and he was watching to make sure we didn’t get back on the river. The ranger told us we could camp there but not knowing how long the river would be closed Merlin asked him for a ride to Two Rivers where we had left his van and the ranger obliged. Luckily he was not the same ranger we met on the Current River a few days ago. We loaded up and went to the Prongs to get my car. Had dinner in Mountain View then drove to Blue Springs to camp. So that was the end of our Jacks Fork paddle. It was cut short by about 8 miles due to flooding so we only paddled 38 miles. We took the next day off to rest up and allow the rivers to recede some. After resupplying we went to Cane Bluff put in for the Eleven Point River to camp. It was a beautiful sunny day.
Eleven Point River Day 1. We woke up to a gray drizzly day and ran our shuttle to the Narrows at highway 142. It’s about 65 miles round trip and took just under 2 hours. The Eleven Point is running high and fast and is a little murky. There were several tricky strainers today. It drizzled a while then cleared off in the afternoon. We stopped at Turner Mill to check out the campsites. With road access there we thought people would be driving down here all night to party so we paddled on to Stinking Pond where we camped last year and didn’t like that site either. We noticed a gravel bar across the river from Stinking Pond and set up camp there. We had a brisk headwind today and it was nice to get off the river. We paddled 13 miles today.
Day 2 It’s a clear and chilly morning. We saw lots of good campsites just below ours this morning. We had a nice slow pace today and stopped at Boze Mill to walk around a little (we had camped there last year). There is a beautiful spring and some mill ruins here. Just below Boze Mill there is a Class 2 rapid that gave us no trouble at all. We paddled past Highway 160 Bridge and saw few campsites below Boze Mill. We did find a nice gravel bar river right with a beautiful meadow river left. We all saw a beaver in the river just at sunset. We heard some coyotes howling and that really freaked out Sheba. It made us sad to see her trembling but she was happy when Merlin put her to bed. We paddled about 15 miles today.
Day 3. Last night I was awoken from a sound sleep by panicky sounds from Janet. She seemed to be fighting with something that was on the outside of her side of the tent. Realizing the danger of the situation and sensing the yet unseen huge fangs lurking just outside our tent, her panic quickly transferred to me. I lunged over top of her to get in the middle of the fight which caused her to let out a squeal that would curl your hair. Turns out the fierce beast was probably just a nothin. Didn’t sleep much the rest of the night as it took a long time for our hearts to calm. There were deer and raccoon tracks outside the tent at daylight. We had an easy paddle day today and were at the take out before noon. It was a pretty fantastic trip, 7 miles today and 35 total miles on the Eleven Point. This makes two years in a row that we did not see a Hellbender. Merlin is a treasure trove of information about paddling and has countless stories of his many decades of paddle adventures that make you wish you had been there. Anyone that has paddled with Merlin knows that daily skinny dipping in the ice cold river is the norm for him. However, one of our fondest memories of the trip was seeing Merlin each day with a small bouquet of flowers in a paper cup sitting near the bow of his boat. He had received the flowers from his girlfriend Deni before leaving, and we supplemented it along the way with dogwood flowers. He also had a small “iron man” figure which got added to his bow along the way, from a Happy Meal stop during a shuttle. And, Sheba would lay quietly in his boat with her head resting on the side of his boat. It all made quite an image…
In total we paddled 118 miles in 9 days and took 1 day off. The 3 of us got along wonderfully and Sheba was a true pleasure to have on the trip. This area of the Missouri Ozarks is truly a beautiful part of our country especially with everything in bloom. We were briefly suspected of starting a fire, ordered off a river due to flooding and had a vehicle vandalized and a boat stolen. We had interaction with law enforcement on all three rivers. Maybe not your typical trip! Got out of Missouri just in time as all the rivers in the area experienced spring flooding and were closed to paddling the days following our trip due to continued heavy rain.
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