Current River from Owl Bend to Van Buren February 15-17
Paul Smith and I were in my raft, Kinneth and Trenton Wallace were in their Arkota, Mark Seabaugh paddled his Wenonah Rendezvous and "Buffalo" Jack Seabaugh handled his Dagger Zydeco like a pro as per usual.
We met at the Float Stream Restaurant in Van Buren around 10:00 Saturday morning to head to the takeout to set shuttle. I had never taken a gander at Big Spring so Paul, Kinneth, Trenton and I decided to go a few miles out of the way to check it out while team Seabaugh proceeded to Waymeyer. Big Spring was definitely worth the trouble.
After we poked around there for a bit we started making our way to Waymeyer which was supposed to be the takeout. However, shortly after turning off the highway to head down to the river we encountered Mark's Excursion backed off the road with the trailer unhooked and half empty. He doesn't have four wheel drive and was stuck, so Paul and I decided to drive a little farther in order to ascertain road conditions. It didn't take us long to determine a two wheel drive vehicle would have no chance of making it down so we headed back to the scene of the mishap. Thankfully noone was hurt and nothing was ruined other than our original plan of taking out at Waymeyer. We decided the thing to do was take out at a less remote area with better access, so we spent the next few minutes getting Mark out of the hole and pointed back toward the highway, then we hooked up the trailer to Paul's truck and headed back toward the teeming metropolis of Van Buren. Hooking up the trailer had given teams Seabaugh and Wallace a head start so they were near the takeout by the time Paul and I arrived at the stop sign back in town. We were about to proceed when we espied a Van Buren police truck rounding the corner with lights flashing. As we watched a civilian vehicle followed with its headlights on, then another, then another. I haven't troubled to look up the population of Van Buren, Missouri, but I'm confident a large portion (and perhaps all) of it was represented in that funeral procession. The only thing missing was the hearse. They must bury folks a little differently up there.
I fully expected to see a jet boat or two behind some of the sundry lifted trucks with vertical exhaust stacks in the bed but in this I was disappointed. Anywho, we eventually made it past the stop sign where we rendezvoused with the rest of the party. As we consolidated boats and gear Pauly pointed out that lowering the take out had increased our trip mileage by ten or so and suggested we lower the put in from Two Rivers to Owl Bend, AKA Powder Mill. We readily assented and began to make our way there.Owl Bend is a really nice access. I recommend it for putting in or camping if you want to see the middle/lower Current (you do). We finally launched at 1:30 (pretty amazing we launched at all on Saturday all things considered) and made our first stop at Blue Spring. Blue Spring is quite amazing. It lives up to its name, but in addition to being blue it boasts incredible visibility. Well worth checking out some time. Within the context of our expedition Blue Spring might also be called Sleet Spring. The weather wasn't quite as amiable as predicted and subjected us to a wintry mix as we made our way down the river, and of course it didn't stop until we had our tents pitched. I should have timed our fire building that day because I'm confident we set a record in the white man fire speed category. I never checked the weather after the fact but the forecast high that day was 38. I don't believe it ever got there. Saturday night's low was, well, low. I was thankful for my down bag.
Sunday dawned cold and mostly clear. It was warmer than Saturday but still cold. We launched around 11:00 and often marveled aloud at the consistency of the flow on that reach of the river. I expected Paul to have to work hard at rowing my raft
but we moved along nicely and didn't stop until we saw some cool caves we wanted to check out across from Beal Landing. Well, in point of fact Teams Seabaugh and Wallace didn't stop at all, but more on that momentarily. Pauly and I scrambled up the snow covered bank to ramble around the caves for a bit. We saw some remarkable icicle formations, ferns in the snow and Old Man's Beard and snapped a few pics before heading back to the raft, or should i say before heading back to where we had left the raft. It seems we had failed to consider the force a jet boat wake would exert on a parked raft. 
Fortunately Kinneth and Trenton were still within earshot and were kind enough to ferry back up and bulldoze the gear pig back to the bank. We told her she was a naughty gear pig but quickly forgave her when she yielded a couple of frosty beverages. I must say at fourteen years of age Trenton possesses remarkable discretion. It's a pity the same can't be said for some others I know, but I digress. 
He didn't say a word about our little mishap until we broached the subject that night around the campfire. We decided that henceforth that little fiasco would be known as the Beal Incident. The remainder of the day passed without disaster and we enjoyed a leisurely float to the next camp for a big fire and fish fry.Monday morning we were greeted by showers but they didn't last long, just long enough to make it really hard to get out of bed. Is there a more coma inducing sound than light rain on a tent fly? We were on the water by 10:30 and passed a cool cloudy morning but were treated to a warm sunny afternoon for the rest of our journey. We had estimated that Sunday night's camp was about a mile above Waymeyer and that turned out to be the case. We stopped to check out Raft Yard and had batting practice with snowballs and a paddle. Paul was the pitcher, and either his eyesight is really bad or he was trying to clear the batter's box.
There was a lot of wood (even for the Current) below Raft Yard and the river really changed character, widening out and bristling with houses and cabins of varying sizes and opulence along the banks. I couldn't help but wonder how long it would be before many of those structures were right at the water's edge, but some appeared to have been there a long time. We reached the terminus of another successful float early Monday afternoon and headed home tired but happy. If you've never floated this reach of the Current you should, but I'd suggest doing it in the winter. I've never had a problem with a jet boater and they have as much right to be on the river as we do, but when they're out en masse they adversely impact the experience, at least for me, so the solution is simple. Go when they won't be there. There are tall bluffs and big sloping hills that are especially beautiful when covered with snow, unique rock formations and plants, lots of birds and outstanding gravel bars for camping. If you planned to travel faster than we did you could easily do Two Rivers Park to Van Buren in the same amount of time. I concede that I wasn't too keen on doing this reach but I'm happy to say I was wrong. Go float it and take your kids and/or grandkids, but if you stop at a high bank tie up your boat.
A lesson Garth and I learned last weekend. We concluded that either Deuce has a hearing problem or the nice lady on the iPhone's map app doesn't like Deuce. 
