Mary McFann and I are planning to paddle tandem open canoe somewhere on the Buffalo on Sunday 9-20-09. We are meeting sometime Sunday morning at the Marble truck stop on HW412 (time yet to be determined) and planning on running our own shuttle for a day trip.
Anyone wanting to join us can call me tomorrow at 479-986-8567 house or 479-721-9101 cell to arrange details.
We are up for for some section of river 10-20 miles and the water should still be "ample" on most sections, so this should not be hard to do, even with a crack of noon put on. We will go regardless, but thought I would mention it, if anyone else wanted to paddle with us.
Eric Esche
I'll be in my suburban and have rack room to haul back a second canoe, or more if we stack them. Otherwise we will drop Mary's car at the bottom and drive mine to the put in, to run shuttle afterwards.
Somewhere on Buffalo Sunday
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Eric Esche
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Re: Somewhere on Buffalo Sunday
Wish I could join you, Eric.
You two kids have fun and be safe!
You two kids have fun and be safe!
Keep Your Stick in the Water!
-Terry-
-Terry-
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fryingsquirrel
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Re: Somewhere on Buffalo Sunday
Eric, I'd love to join you and Mary, but I'm in Little Rock till monday or tuesday and can't get away.
I guess I'll have to be there in spirit...
Jon
I guess I'll have to be there in spirit...
Jon
"Life is a question asked by nature and answered by death. You are a different kind of question with a different kind of answer." -Helios
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plaidpants
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Re: Somewhere on Buffalo Sunday
Sorry Eric. Jennifer and I are in KCvisiting our daughter and going to the Chiefs game tomorrow. You and Mary paddle safely.
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Eric Esche
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Re: Somewhere on Buffalo Sunday
Well, Mary and I are going to both drive over to the Buffalo River after meeting at the Marble truckstop on HW 412E at 8AM, and then leave her car at HW 14 bridge parking lot. Then we are going to drive up to Gilbert to put in for a 21.4 mile paddle. This is longer milage than we normally do with ACC groups, but since we are not in a group and the water is "ample", and we have a faster canoe, we figure we will have no problem doing the miles before 6PM, 7PM if we take a long lunch and put on by 11AM.
We have done the last half of the trip before and have Ken Smith's Buffalo River Handbook and the NG water proof map with us, along with suntan lotion, mesh bags, a cooler of iced food and drink, spare paddles, a rescue bag, hats, sunglasses, dry bag of extra clothes and flashlights, and first aid kit. Also have my interferential unit with several sets of batteries in case my neck acts up, plus all my meds. We picked this section because Mary's car has low clearance and we can stay on paved roads for the whole shuttle, although that is the longer way back around to Gilbert.
If anyone wants to run shuttle with us, be at HighWay 14 bridge before 10AM and look for my 1989 Blue/Grey Suburban with a 17'2" green Mad River Northwoods open canoe up top. Racks are sort of hard to miss as I have an orange plastic noodle over the front two racks. Got 78" racks so I can haul what ever we can tie on back up to Gilbert.
Forecast weather is for sunny mid 80'sF by afternoon, cooling to 74F by 7PM. HW 65 (St.Joe) gauge is at 6.87 as I type this, so should still be above 6 feet tomorrow, just about the middle of the "Ample" water for that gauge. HW14 gauge is 5.85, high end of ample. SWEET!
Eric
We have done the last half of the trip before and have Ken Smith's Buffalo River Handbook and the NG water proof map with us, along with suntan lotion, mesh bags, a cooler of iced food and drink, spare paddles, a rescue bag, hats, sunglasses, dry bag of extra clothes and flashlights, and first aid kit. Also have my interferential unit with several sets of batteries in case my neck acts up, plus all my meds. We picked this section because Mary's car has low clearance and we can stay on paved roads for the whole shuttle, although that is the longer way back around to Gilbert.
If anyone wants to run shuttle with us, be at HighWay 14 bridge before 10AM and look for my 1989 Blue/Grey Suburban with a 17'2" green Mad River Northwoods open canoe up top. Racks are sort of hard to miss as I have an orange plastic noodle over the front two racks. Got 78" racks so I can haul what ever we can tie on back up to Gilbert.
Forecast weather is for sunny mid 80'sF by afternoon, cooling to 74F by 7PM. HW 65 (St.Joe) gauge is at 6.87 as I type this, so should still be above 6 feet tomorrow, just about the middle of the "Ample" water for that gauge. HW14 gauge is 5.85, high end of ample. SWEET!
Eric
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Eric Esche
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Re: Somewhere on Buffalo Sunday
We did it. Fantastic day on river. Perfect weather and water level. Great bow partners (Mary and Chloe), and a fast new to me boat. Memorable. Neither of us wanted to drive home.
Neither of us had done the Gilbert to N.Maumee section before. It is nice, and I would willingly go back to do it again. Mary and I had both done the last part from N.Maume to HW 14 bridge before, so we mosly drifted once we got to N.Maumee, knowing that the first half of trip was already over in less than 2 hours, and we would have no problems getting off before dark. With just a little more paddling we probably could have made Rush with no problems, but we hadn't set shuttle for that.
Killer of a shuttle. One hour of dirt if you go by Tomahawk Slab road with much washerboard, and a ford over the Tomahawk slab that you do not know until you get there if there is too much water or an hour each way by paved roads with lots of curves. We took Tomahawk Slab road on the way up in the Suburban, and won't do that again by choice, when it is just as fasts to go the longer route by pavement. We took the pavement of HW 14 North to HW 235 to HW 65 to HW 333 on the way back to retrieve Suburban from Gilbert and then back again to HW 14 to retrieve the canoe as Mary has a car nobody makes racks for, and which has little ground clearance. Worked out to 9 hours of driving for me (11+ for Mary) to do 21.4 miles of Buffalo in 6 hours on river, an hour of that time doing beach walks with Chloe, and eating lunch. Bottom of canoe never touched bottom until we stopped to take beach breaks. Nice......
Current was prime at just under 7 feet on the HW14 gauge and we had the river all to our selves all day, other than 5 minutes when 2 drunks were launched by Dirst at N.Maumee. Didn't feel any responsibilty as the 2 men were over 21 (probably over 50) and we passed them in the first bend when they chose to take the far left channel with low hanging limbs, that the Dirst shuttle drive had warned them about. They survived but we heard them cussing each other as we drifted out of earshot. Bet they had a long day. We never saw or heard them again, even when we took long beach breaks with Chloe.
We saw lots of Blue Heron, Green heron, kingfishers, hawks, hundreds of turtles, including some stacked on top of others, and about 8 swimming squirrels, which Mary's dog Chloe did not see. Chloe really had a good time on our beach walks sniffng tracks while we found friendship rocks. She was very well behaved, and chose to be a bow spirit most of the day, but decided to take some short power naps when the sun was out with her head resting on the gunnel. We did not get a drop of rain until almost back to Gilbert on the shuttle, but it stopped when we got to the Suburban, and then stopped again when we got back to pick up the canoe. Luck like that I will take any day.
Great day on the water, but with that drive I wished we had not had to drive home so soon. Maybe 2-3 day trip in future. 20 miler is real doable when water is up, just maybe not on the same day you have to drive home. Was worth it, just real tired when got home about 11PM. 30 miler to Rush actually would have been a shorter shuttle, and one with a campground at the end.....Hmmm.... maybe a 2 dayer to Shipps. or a hired shuttle.
Hope y'all had as nice a Sunday as we did, and hope we can paddle with you another time.
Eric Esche
Oh yeah - and a BIG thank you to the Former owners of the Mad River NorthWoods. You kept it in geat shape for us to enjoy. It really is a very nice boat for tripping on the Buffalo, just what I wanted. Hope you find the boats you want.
Neither of us had done the Gilbert to N.Maumee section before. It is nice, and I would willingly go back to do it again. Mary and I had both done the last part from N.Maume to HW 14 bridge before, so we mosly drifted once we got to N.Maumee, knowing that the first half of trip was already over in less than 2 hours, and we would have no problems getting off before dark. With just a little more paddling we probably could have made Rush with no problems, but we hadn't set shuttle for that.
Killer of a shuttle. One hour of dirt if you go by Tomahawk Slab road with much washerboard, and a ford over the Tomahawk slab that you do not know until you get there if there is too much water or an hour each way by paved roads with lots of curves. We took Tomahawk Slab road on the way up in the Suburban, and won't do that again by choice, when it is just as fasts to go the longer route by pavement. We took the pavement of HW 14 North to HW 235 to HW 65 to HW 333 on the way back to retrieve Suburban from Gilbert and then back again to HW 14 to retrieve the canoe as Mary has a car nobody makes racks for, and which has little ground clearance. Worked out to 9 hours of driving for me (11+ for Mary) to do 21.4 miles of Buffalo in 6 hours on river, an hour of that time doing beach walks with Chloe, and eating lunch. Bottom of canoe never touched bottom until we stopped to take beach breaks. Nice......
Current was prime at just under 7 feet on the HW14 gauge and we had the river all to our selves all day, other than 5 minutes when 2 drunks were launched by Dirst at N.Maumee. Didn't feel any responsibilty as the 2 men were over 21 (probably over 50) and we passed them in the first bend when they chose to take the far left channel with low hanging limbs, that the Dirst shuttle drive had warned them about. They survived but we heard them cussing each other as we drifted out of earshot. Bet they had a long day. We never saw or heard them again, even when we took long beach breaks with Chloe.
We saw lots of Blue Heron, Green heron, kingfishers, hawks, hundreds of turtles, including some stacked on top of others, and about 8 swimming squirrels, which Mary's dog Chloe did not see. Chloe really had a good time on our beach walks sniffng tracks while we found friendship rocks. She was very well behaved, and chose to be a bow spirit most of the day, but decided to take some short power naps when the sun was out with her head resting on the gunnel. We did not get a drop of rain until almost back to Gilbert on the shuttle, but it stopped when we got to the Suburban, and then stopped again when we got back to pick up the canoe. Luck like that I will take any day.
Great day on the water, but with that drive I wished we had not had to drive home so soon. Maybe 2-3 day trip in future. 20 miler is real doable when water is up, just maybe not on the same day you have to drive home. Was worth it, just real tired when got home about 11PM. 30 miler to Rush actually would have been a shorter shuttle, and one with a campground at the end.....Hmmm.... maybe a 2 dayer to Shipps. or a hired shuttle.
Hope y'all had as nice a Sunday as we did, and hope we can paddle with you another time.
Eric Esche
Oh yeah - and a BIG thank you to the Former owners of the Mad River NorthWoods. You kept it in geat shape for us to enjoy. It really is a very nice boat for tripping on the Buffalo, just what I wanted. Hope you find the boats you want.
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fryingsquirrel
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Re: Somewhere on Buffalo Sunday
Eric... Did you get ANOTHER boat? A Northwoods 17, huh? how's it paddle?
"Life is a question asked by nature and answered by death. You are a different kind of question with a different kind of answer." -Helios
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Cool River Runnings
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Re: Somewhere on Buffalo Sunday
Eric, sure glad you liked the northwoods. Sounds like you had a great day on buffalo. Can't wait to get to the buffalo in few weeks.
Re: Somewhere on Buffalo Sunday
Sounds like a great trip!! Sunday was awesome! Sunny finally! I did some hiking and had the crew I was with head on down and look at the Buffalo after we were done It looked great!
Went with a couple of people last Thursday from Boxley to Kyle's Landing and had a great time, but no sunshine.
Went with a couple of people last Thursday from Boxley to Kyle's Landing and had a great time, but no sunshine.
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