Arkansas Canoe Club Forums

RandyJ wrote:I think I posted these several months ago, but here's a few Shop Creek photos from the 2nd D back in 1995.

If I remember right that may hvae been the trip where we ran into Oscar Shelton up at Wayton. Oscar lives on top of the mountain and this was back before the Wayton road was paved. He was out in the middle of the road in front of his house moving big rocks and boulders that had washed into the road from the storm. He moved over and we slowed to a stop and rolled down the window, and said, "How much rain did you get last night?" and he said, "Well... not countin' what splashed out of the gauge I got 6 inches." And then somebody else in the truck said, "How big is your gauge?" And Oscar said, "6 inches." He asked what we were up to and we told him and he said something like "Boy howdy that's ruff country down in there ya'll be real careful." We said we would, waved good bye and headed on the shuttle. I'll never forget him describing the rain that way, "Not counting what splashed out of the gauge..."

That trip was a hoot!

This is how I began my paddling career. I'd say this photo is circa '89, most likely somewhere on the Big Piney. I would be the one with the hat, not the one with the red bow...

Here are some snap shots of Dr. Dale & Pam in Royal Gorge '95. Just happened to run into them in Canyon City that day and told them I'd run their shuttle. So you see that Pam is more than just a shuttle driver.

Terry Prater

I need some help here. I think the guy in the yellow Mad River is Walter Felton, but I'm not sure. Have no idea who the other guys are. This was at the old Roller Coaster Rapid, which they are now calling Wall Banger on Big Piney in about '90 or '91.

Terry Prater

Anybody have an archive of old club newsletters? I did TRs for the first descents on Thomas and Shop Creeks that I'd love to "excavate." It would probably be the May or June newsletter from 1988. Yeah, I know it's a stretch, but thought I'd ask...

One of the best all time memories I have of paddling growing up involved many ACC players in Colorado on the Arkansas. Eveybody was camping at the old free BLM Area across the road from Five Points on the Parkdale section. During this week, Kenny Holmes took me down Brown's Canyon in his spanking new 14' Avon Adventurer. It was also during this week I hiked into Sunshine (before the rock moved) to watch everybody come down the Gorge. Now, likely 20 years later, I still have the image of a Red Blue Hole OCA completely out of the water, boofing the rock at Sunshine. Yes, it was Dale Barton before the days of short boats. What was the name of that boat Dale?

These are the types of experiences that hooked me early on. My involvement in paddling as a lifelong sport is largely due to the experiences with the friendly long time members of the ACC in the 80's. Thank you for showing a scrawny kid how to have fun on the river.

That would be the boat called "Red Blue Hole". Dale

Hey Joel, here's one for you. Ya don't see too many 13 year-olds running Skull (Westwater Canyon) in an open boat.

BTW, that's an old Perception HD-1 that he's successfully maneuvering down the canyon!

all that talk about wanting to tandem and not having a boat or planning who wanted who as a tandem partner and no one has bought that Mad River ME on the for sale board yet. Guess it was just talk, unless you are now figuring who to BUY one with as a partner.

I've used that story before - No, I didn't buy it outright, I went in partners on it with .................... We're just storing it here for now while we touch it up some. Right Tom?

Susan still tells me I have too many boats and one has to go.

I still like old Mad River opens with good royalex hulls.

Eric

What an awesome anthology! I enjoyed living vicariously thru your pics.
leigh (she who paddles flatwater)

Way back in time......
If anybody has kayak photos older than this, the boats were probably made out of seal skins!

I THINK the river photos were January 1977. My brother, Frank, invited me to join a float trip on the Caddo River. It was very cold and I was to paddle tandem with a guy I struggle to remember. I don't think I even owned a rain coat, so I'm seen here in my cowboy hat, PBR in hand, a down vest, borrowed shell, and , if you look closely, you can see the camlok beavertail closure of a diver's wet suit top over my jeans. At least I didn't have a Kool cigarette in hand in this pic, as I did in another of this set. Diving gear was the only readily available cold-water gear around. Frank got certified as a diver at the Downtown YMCA while he was in junior high or high school, followed later by my Dad and I, though had I sold my hard-accumulated gear by this time because I didn't own a vehicle and there was no way I could afford to go anywhere.
(Side note: Our Dad lived in Fort Smith and opened a dive shop in his garage. I remember my him explaining the just-introduced modern marvel of "velcro" to me, as it was a boon to divers accustomed to dealing with jammed twist cams on gear.)

In the next photo is our own Tomcat, also attired in a long-sleeved US Divers wetsuit top, horse-collar life jacket and paddling what I think is a Phoenix kayak. Brother Frank is in the background.

The top photo is at the Little Rock Tennis Center in the summer of 1978. d*ck Held Kayaks sponsored a roll session and I was being instructed by John Fergason. I did roll the boat in that session, but didn't get back in a kayak until the following year, after which I swam all across this great land of ours before acquiring a reliable roll.
A key selling point of the d*ck Held boats was that they were designed to easily break in half at the cockpit in the event of a pin. Really. I couldn't make that up. Early big-water legend Walt Blackadar had recently drowned pinned in his boat, so that feature got the attention of the small but growing whitewater community.

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Things started developing fairly quickly around this time. We got Seda helmets, plastic boats were displacing glass and hard-earned skills allowed us to bite off bigger challenges.

Here's my first trip down the Buffalo probably in 80.

JohnB: now that...THAT is old school! Good stuff. I esp like the Tomcat photo...sorta' like seeing Liberace before he was famous and wearing sequins - before he had established that image thing, ya' know? Well, maybe Liberace ain't such a good example.

But seriously, you guys, along with people like Dr Dale, Beard, Max Wellhouse, Jim Simmons, Stewart Noland, Cowper, and The-Other-People-I'm-Ticking-Off-Because-I-Left-Them-Off-Here (feel free to add to the list) were the real pioneers, helping guys like me that came behind get going and come to love the sport so much. Thank you guys.

jermdog wrote:Here's my first trip down the Buffalo probably in 80.

I like how they made you wear a hat to remind you what your name is... AND that is a WHOPPER of a fish. How did you reel that bad boy in with those tiny muscles??

--Zach

How did you reel that bad boy in with those tiny muscles??

That's the same thing I asked your mother.
Jeremy