Short ONSR (Ozarks) Trip 9/27-9/28/25

[ABT]

This year marks the 28th year that Dad and I have gone down to the Ozark National Scenic Riverways to “float”. For about the last 15 years this has been a Fall trip (or as close as we can get it). This year was a little early, but there were leaves falling and temps were not too hot. Lows were in the mid to upper 50s at night and hit highs around 83 late afternoon. Mornings were very cool on the water but pleasant. As usual we tried to get on the water early to avoid other people, but there was a pretty heavy fog both mornings that delayed us a little. Still, we were on the rivers by 8am and chased the tails of the fog off. Water levels were a little bit lower than normal, due to a drought we’ve had, but a decent rain shower hit the area earlier in the week and brought both the Current and the Jacks up a little bit. Not enough that we could start as high on the rivers as we’d have liked, but enough that any dragging was minor and we never had to get out to walk past a shallow spot. Unfortunately I had to cut this trip a couple days short but we still had a great time.

We started out with doing the Jacks Fork river, Alley Springs to Two Rivers landing (confluence with the Current). This is listed as a 13 mile paddle, but with heavy flooding this past Fall and Spring, the river has changed course a bit. We clocked it at 15.5 miles on the gps, with some of the extra just us meandering and some due to river changes. We have done this paddle many, many times, but the river was extremely different this year. Very few spots were familiar anymore due to the floods. Additionally, the river had exponentially more obstacles than in the past (strainers, logs, etc), and often in places where maneuvering was difficult. In all of our years doing this we have never seen more places where the channel and current pushed so hard into true strainers with limited opportunity to avoid them. Frankly, this made for a more adrenaline fueled run, and was a ton of fun, although I would now hesitate to recommend the Jacks Fork to inexperienced paddlers. The Current was much more beginner friendly which I’ll get to later. The water was also as clear as I’ve ever seen it, and the pictures do not do it justice at all.

For this trip I paddled my Bell Starfire, and Dad took the Mad River Guide.

About one mile into the trip, we came around a dog leg bend and Dad caught one of the snags broadside trying to break out of the main current. I had an easier time with the highly rockered Starfire and came to appreciate that feature an awful lot as the day progressed.

Hard to tell in the pic, but this was the lead in to the snag with current flowing right to left (photo taken looking upstream).

You had to avoid the log on river left, and immediately paddle left out of the main current to avoid a submerged log, and small snag right in the current. Dad caught the snag circled below and was glad to be wearing his shorty wetsuit as the spring water and cool air made for a chilly dip.


After we recovered his paddle and bailed his boat we were back at it.

Lots of pretty scenery during the day:

Water was very clear and beautiful blue in the deep spots.


We picked a nice gravel bar where a spring branch comes in for lunch and some glamour shots of my Starfire:


Then onward for more paddling and scenery:


Another quick stop:


Then on again:



Then finally at the takeout:


No pictures of the tricky faster sections unfortunately, too busy paddling. Perfect weather for a gorgeous and fun run though. Overall it was only about 5 hours, but definitely more of a workout with the many tricky spots, and we were both a little tired afterwards.

Part two below as I exceeded the photo limit.

 

[ABT]

For Day 2 we picked a short popular run on the Current, Pulltite to Round Spring. This is a shorter 8 mi section because at this point I had gotten word of a sick kiddo at home and wanted to be back that evening to be home with him Monday (he’s doing fine with a very minor fever and playing happily as I type this, so all good).

We started just a hair later and immediately noticed the water was very blue and still beautiful, but not quite as clear as the Jacks had been the day before.


Also almost immediately we ran into a spring tumbling out of some rocks on the river bank:


Then just some leisurely paddling taking in the sights:

There are more photos of Dad in the Guide since it’s harder to photograph myself while paddling.

Little spot called skull cave (I didn’t get the eponymous angle):


Water was still pretty clear in a lot of places if not as much so as the previous day:


And that was pretty much it. Short trip but plenty of great scenery. We were off the water in about 3 hours, no lunch and only one short stop. Headed back to our campsites packed up and headed home.

The Starfire performed absolutely great and was a lot of fun. It skids around turns like a drift car and skates across hard currents like nobody’s business. It is more work to keep going straight (requires a constant dedicated correction stroke) and has zero tracking, but obeys every paddle input eagerly. I also don’t understand how a boat with a 34” beam accelerates as fast as it does. You can be up to good cruising speed in 2-3 decent strokes. It accelerated much faster than the narrower Guide even when Dad had the double blade out. He commented later that it was a bit of a challenge to keep up with at cruising speed too, so it’s fairly fast just cruising as well. By contrast if I’m in my Prospector 15 it is the opposite and it is hard for me to keep up with the Guide and I notice how much faster he accelerates than me. Definitely gave the White Gold layup a few new scratches on the bottom and at least one new spider crack bouncing off a submerged log, but it held up pretty well I thought. Overall it was a great trip and it looks like I’ll be heading back in a few weeks with a different group. Can’t wait.

 

[Woodpuppy]

That’s a very cool shot of the green canoe flying low over the water!

 

[Erica]

Nice trip report. The rivers look similar to the lower section of the Buffalo River I ran back a few years. I’m jealous of the MR Guide. Lost mine in the divorce.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Paddling with your dad for 28 years is wonderful. You'll always remember these trips. I paddled with my dad only once, and its been 25 years since any of my kids paddled with me. Thanks for taking the time to post these reports and lovely pictures, ABT.

 

[Gamma1214]

Great pics & nice write-up; thanks for taking the time.

I've often wished I'd started canoe tripping while my Dad was in shape to go. At 88, he's still around & enjoys reading about my trips but nothing beats being there.

Now to convince my kids to tag along on one...

 

[ABT]

Nice trip report. The rivers look similar to the lower section of the Buffalo River I ran back a few years. I’m jealous of the MR Guide. Lost mine in the divorce.

We tried making it down to the Buffalo this past Spring but Dad unfortunately had to have a torn retina surgery and was out of commission for 8 weeks. We’ve heard great things and would love to compare to what we’re used to. Hopefully we’ll make it next Spring.
And the Guide is a cool boat for sure. It’s his favorite and for good reason.

 

[ABT]

Paddling with your dad for 28 years is wonderful. You'll always remember these trips.

I hope so. We certainly have some great memories of past trips, and it’s fun to remember them sitting around the campfire. Especially the old stories from the aluminum tandem days camping on gravel bars.

At 88, he's still around & enjoys reading about my trips but nothing beats being there.

I’ve certainly been very lucky to have him along with me for so many years. I noticed this year he’s having a hard time single blade paddling on his left side due to arthritis in his wrist, and he may have to switch back to a kayak and exclusively the double blade at some point soon but I’m hoping to get several more years out of him.

Now to convince my kids to tag along on one...

My oldest is about to turn 3, my youngest is almost 1, and I really hope they enjoy it as much as I do. I plan on trying to get them into it, and I’d like to have them on several good trips with their Grandpa if possible but we’ll see. I’m going to try my best to introduce them to it in a positive way but you just never know if they’ll take to it or not. Sometimes it’s just not their thing, and that’s OK, but it would sure be nice if it is.

 

[gumpus]

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Punkinhead]

Our friend group also does a Fall trip to the Ozarks every year so we were there a week ago. We camped in Eminence and did Jack's Fork from Alley Spring to Owl's Bend and the Current from Aker's Ferry to Round Spring. Like you experienced, it was too shallow to paddle above Alley Spring which is a shame because whenever we've done it in the past we've had it to ourselves. We'd have liked to have done the Eleven Points but the shuttles are pretty long and none of us were excited about doing that much driving. In past years we've hired an outfitter to move our vehicles.

My wife usually paddles a kayak and I paddle a solo canoe but this year we rented a tandem canoe for part of the Current River and she enjoyed it so we might be looking at adding one to our fleet. It's been over 30 years since I've owned or paddled a tandem canoe.

 

[ABT]

Our friend group also does a Fall trip to the Ozarks every year so we were there a week ago. We camped in Eminence and did Jack's Fork from Alley Spring to Owl's Bend and the Current from Aker's Ferry to Round Spring. Like you experienced, it was too shallow to paddle above Alley Spring which is a shame because whenever we've done it in the past we've had it to ourselves. We'd have liked to have done the Eleven Points but the shuttles are pretty long and none of us were excited about doing that much driving. In past years we've hired an outfitter to move our vehicles.

My wife usually paddles a kayak and I paddle a solo canoe but this year we rented a tandem canoe for part of the Current River and she enjoyed it so we might be looking at adding one to our fleet. It's been over 30 years since I've owned or paddled a tandem canoe.

We usually go a little later in the year and often have the river to ourselves, although we really only saw a few other people each day this time so I can’t complain too much. But having it to yourself is just an awesome experience every time. If we’d have had more days like originally planned we were either going to do round spring to two rivers (17 miles) or bite the bullet and make the hour plus drive to the eleven point one day, but like you say the long shuttle wasn’t super appealing.

Been a long time since I was in a tandem with an actual paddler (have taken my nieces on very short runs with their parents), and they can be really fun with the right team but it’s also nice to be able to be side by side when you want to chat or go one after the other if you want. The flexibility of multiple solos is hard to beat a lot of times.

What did you think of the changes to the Jacks? I was shocked that I recognized so little of it, and that there were so many new (and sometimes challenging) obstacles. I remember as a kid we always thought the Jacks was harder (but more fun), but in recent years I felt it was pretty sedate in that stretch. Now it seems back to being the more exciting of the two rivers by a fair bit, at least to me.

 

[Punkinhead]

What did you think of the changes to the Jacks? I was shocked that I recognized so little of it, and that there were so many new (and sometimes challenging) obstacles. I remember as a kid we always thought the Jacks was harder (but more fun), but in recent years I felt it was pretty sedate in that stretch. Now it seems back to being the more exciting of the two rivers by a fair bit, at least to me.

There are a lot of trees in the water that I assume are from Spring floods. I grew up paddling whitewater so I didn't find any of it challenging but several in the group certainly did. They're a great group of friends who I love spending time with but, despite paddling regularly, they aren't any good at it. They've never learned to read the river or proper strokes to control their boats. All except me are in kayaks and most of those are in the wrong kayaks for rivers - they're long, semi-v hulls with built-in skegs so they're made for tracking on flat water but are difficult to turn in current even for someone who knows what they're doing. And they don't. So when they're heading for a tree or rock they're pretty much guaranteed to hit it. One lady dumped in the very first little riffle on day 1 and that was it for her. No more paddling that trip. There were several more dumps that week, including my wife, which is why we're considering a tandem canoe. I'm a bit bummed about it because I love paddling a solo canoe but if that's what it takes to keep her coming along then that's what I'll do.

I know I'm ranting, but it frustrates me that they won't put in the effort to learn to paddle. It'd be a lot more fun for them and certainly safer. Simple things like looking ahead to know where the current is taking them, laying on their back with feet in front when swimming in current, never grabbing an overhanging branch, recognizing a strainer, etc. I've mildly suggested several times that they spend the $20 to join our local club which holds classes but so far no takers. I don't want to start telling them what to do on the river because it's supposed to be a fun day with friends and I don't want to come off as a know it all. So I just bite my tongue, pull them to the bank, and retrieve their boats and gear. I've learned to take a throw rope and pin kit along even on mild rivers like Jack's Fork and the Current. Those are things I used to only carry in whitewater, but that was when I was with proficient paddlers.