difficulty of east fork of the illinois bayou

[davidj]

I wanted to get some input on the degree of difficulty of the east fork of the illinois bayou. On american whitewater it is rated as a class II stream, and I was under the impression that it would be a good stream for an aggressive beginner to novice paddler. When I mentioned paddling it to my father, he told me that he would not recommend me floating it because it was a very technical stream only meant for very advanced paddlers (note: he speaks from second hand knowledge, not experience). Is the east fork of the bayou this difficult for normal flows? If anyone has floated it, how would it compare to difficult local runs like the cossatot and richland?

[canoe]

Main problem will probably be strainers/trees. There is no comparison to Tot or Richland . dale

[Cowper]

I agree with Dale, but would add that a strainer on Class II can still kill you. So caution is appropriate - don't paddle through anything "blind" (where you can't see far enough ahead to be sure you can eddy out if you suddenly see a strainer ahead).

Relative to your Dad's comments; it always amazes me how there are so many different circles of paddlers, and the "expert" on one circle is just a "beginner" in some other circle. In one circle, you find folks who think a "novice" or "beginner" is someone who has been out less than 3 times, an intermediate is someone who goes at least once or twice every year, and an "advanced" or "expert" is someone who has either gone more than 20 times, or 2 or 3 times per year for 10 years or more. But in other circles, that "advanced" paddler is considered a beginner, because they don't even have basic eddy-catching skills, don't do peel-outs, etc.

Since you're using terms like "aggressive beginner" and "novice", I'm going to say you've already done some reasonable self-assessments and not fallen into the trap of thinking an expert is someone who did the Buffalo twice a year for twenty years. And I see a past post where you were looking to go to Little Missouri. So I think you'll be fine on the Bayou, as long as you are careful about the strainers. I'd bet money you'll have some trees down in the river along the way, since that is a less-visited river. You may even have to portage some. Give us a trip report when you come back!

[prophet]

would like to run it now vs back in the noob days in a 17' keeled boat just to see. lots of trees down then and bushy portages. its a wilderness area and a long way out if something happens. That creek should NOT be listed in the Arkansas Floaters Kit that used to be available at the rest areas for tourists

[LARAMY]

https://vimeo.com/47552571" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[magicmike]

Wow! That looks fun and beautiful. I'm gonna try to catch that sometime. -M-

[Don Harwood]

Ditto what Dale, Cowper, and Grant said!
It is pretty remote, A+ scenery.
We even saw a bear when we were on it.
Great surfing for playboaters on the East Fork!

[Roger]

You guys almost ran out of daylight, huh?! What was the length of the trip and time required?

[T Yamashita]

Nice! I hope you didn't scare anyone with that unmarked ambulance! ;-) ty

[LARAMY]

We put on at FR 1301 and took out at the 27 Bridge (same take-out as the Snow Creek run). The section in Kennon's book is 10 miles so I bet we at least did 12 miles by changing the take-out, and yes, about ran out of daylight. It's been a couple years so I can't remember how long exactly it took us. I had heard nothing but bad things about it before doing it but found it to be full of great scenery, some cool rapids, nice gradient, and portage free. It's definitely worth doing once.

T, that was the maiden voyage of the ambulance

[Roger]

Guessing you used the gauge for IB at Scottsville for that so do you remember the level or suggested eyeball of the put-in bridge?

[LARAMY]

9.76 on the IB at Scottsville gauge that day.