Buffalo River Trail Crew HELP! (Oct 8 Gilbert) TRIP REPORT

[Louiscov]

This was one of my AWESOME-EST WEEKENDS EVER !!! I got back to north Louisiana after midnight Sunday (left Gilbert at 6:15) TOTALLY ENERGIZED after 3 days paddling on the Buffalo, lots of work transporting and carrying gear for the trail volunteers, experiencing my first -and definitely not last - cleanup action with Cowper and Debo.

The trail builders were from Rhode Island, Maryland, Wisconsin, Missouri, Texas. We sat around the fire one night and Ken Smith (author of The Buffalo River Handbook) pointed out that had the Buffalo not been saved, exactly where we were sitting would have been under a gazillion tons of concrete, as the proposed Gilbert Dam would have bisected Tyler Bend.

Spending evenings with Ken, one of the early (1960's) conservation advocates, being part of the passion (and innovative thinking) of Cowper and Debo, moving gear and supplies for the trail builders: all together provided a SUPER experience linking the Buffalo's past (Ken), present (cleanup), and future (new trails) was spactacular. Thanks to Richard for including me, the great company of all who participated, and to Eric who introduced me to the Werner Bandit paddle (even if it is gonna cost me $150+ )

[Richard]

It was all Richard’s fault. First, he didn't fully load our boats with gear at Gilbert like we expected,

Yep! But . . . when Louis and I ran the section on Friday, I knew then that there was no way Cowper was going to let that water heater stay there. And then there were the big black things. No dog ever drooled over something the way Cowper did when he saw that big black thing way up in the tree on Saturday. So I resigned myself to the fact that the gear had to get to Sand Hole some other way.

To make this short and sweet, thank you everyone who participated in the cleanup.

BTW, anyone up for toting gear from Red Bluff when the trailbuilding ends? HELP!!!!

[Eric Esche]

[quote="Richard"

BTW, anyone up for toting gear from Red Bluff when the trailbuilding ends? HELP

Maybe, if the water goes up between now and then and we go down to North Maumee.

AND now after having seen Cowper and Debo's dual canoe with trolling motor rig, I seriously think I want to try it with two of my canoes and a trolling motor on the Rush to Buffalo City run since I have two marine batteries.

And Cowper said he is interested in a Dual trolling motor twin canoe experiment, but no water skiing.

Heard there is lots of trash and tires left on the Rush to Buffalo City run.

Eric Esche

[MikkiW]

Richard,
LOVE the cartoon balloon captions on the picture of Debo and Cowper. Still laughing!!!!!! How did you do that?

[Cowper]

Mikki, I was thinking he was using some new software that converts speech-to-text, until that I remembered, I never said "goodie goodie". I believe it was more like - "ooh, ooh, ooh, look over there!"

BTW, anyone up for toting gear from Red Bluff when the trailbuilding ends? HELP

I'm working an outage now, so probably can't get off from work. But I'll check. Do you know which day, or is there some flexibility?

Heard there is lots of trash and tires left on the Rush to Buffalo City run.

You've really got me mulling this one over. There's probably almost never, if ever, clean-ups on this section of river due to the length with no intermediate take-outs. The logistics make it a formidable challenge, and thus worth doing. Some of the issues I see are:

Gilbert to Red Bluff was only 3 miles; we had 3 canoes fully loaded, partial loads in several others. The lower stretch is 25 miles; how would we get enough boats and participants to haul all the trash we’d find? Simple math says we’d need 30+ boats if we were to tackle it on one trip.

The topo maps show several old roads going to the river, but the park map and more modern maps say this is Wilderness. Are there any intermediate roads that can be legally driven? Are there any closed roads that the Park Service might allow a "special permit" for one-time use, given our purpose?

Carrying overnight camping gear would further reduce trash-hauling capacity. (For Richard, it would completely eliminate trash-hauling capacity.)

I’m thinking some type of power-assist will be needed; maybe split into two groups. One covers the first half, then gets towed to the finish. The second group is towed to the middle, then cleans the second half.

The planning continues…

[cpresoz]

One portion of this I'd like to help on would be getting a vehicle down one of those wilderness roads and meeting the caravan of boats and shuttle trash out of there. But it is amazing how few designated county roads get to barely within a mile of the river. There seem to be old roads that would allow access, with permission. Those with more experience of the area could start plotting possible access points, with which to approach the authorities.

[Clif]

Someone beat us to it, guys. Just called the rangers to ask about road access in the lower end. I was just told by Jarrod, hope I spelled it right, that a group cleaned the lower section a couple of weeks ago. Tires and large items they piled in a few spots above flood level and got coords for to be picked up later, when there is water, by jet boats coming upstream. He said they did a pretty extensive job bringing out or stashing refrigerators, many tires and lots of the road mat stuff as well as the usual.

Said they will call back if there are other areas they know that need attention. I was told the section below Carver was done not long ago by a group that brought out as many tires as they could, but they only put a good dent in the problem there.

Perhaps between where we stopped and Maumee?

[Clif]

Just got back from helping the trail builders off the river. We had 5 of us and a back end full of gear in my truck. Dropped off many at Gilbert and made our way to Tyler Bend maintenance station to unload gear. As We were waiting for some of the group, I noticed a pile of stuff by some dumpsters. Shoulda took a picture. There was our water heater, cabinet, old desk and those mats beside a huge pile of tires. Made me feel good to see that stuff where it oughta be!. Kudos to you all.

[Eric Esche]

Great News about you and Richard and others being there to help haul the gear out for Ken Smith and the Bufflo River trail builders. I felt guilty all morning about not being there, but my knee is still hurting from just standing around last night at the NW ACC Chapter meeting and it did not feel guilty at all. Again to all, my thanks for your being there when you were needed.

Good also to hear that the trash we got has been hauled out of Sand Hole.

Eric Esche

[Richard]

There is no way of describing what Clif meant to the trailbuilders on Saturday. We had a bunch of gear and people to get out. Clif and his Mule turned an overwhelming chore into a manageable . . . even pleasurable task.
THANK YOU CLIF ANDRUS
from Ken Smith and the trailbuilders