Beech Creek Trip Report September 14, 2008

[shelbyjohnson]

I don't quite have the flair for writing as much as I used to but thought I would share this quick trip report.

Hurricane Ike rambled into the Texas Gulf coast and then sped northward throughout most of September 13th. The heaviest rains in Arkansas fell overnight and into the early hours of the 14th.

A good group left Little Rock very early on that Sunday morning to get into the Ozarks as quickly as we could. Our group would meet up with several others all coming from Fayetteville and parts there abouts. We made new friends and saw many old friends. Funny six inches of rain brings out the pioneers from the glory days when all the runs were first descents.

Beech Creek has always held a magical spell on me personally. I've not kept real accurate records but over a twenty year span I think I've managed to catch the creek 6 or 7 times. Its hard to catch. Here's an epic story on the run from many years ago where I didn't get to make the run.
http://www.ozarkpages.com/whitewater/ta ... htrip.html

The creek had always made a considerable impression on me. I took quite a bit of time to write another several other stories about Beech Creek and this one got published in the Nov-Dec 2000 American Whitewater Journal.
http://www.americanwhitewater.org/conte ... 0_page_63_

Beech is a fairly long run something like 7 or 8 miles it requires a hike/drag in and you need an early start combined with able paddlers who can lead around the next bend.

Geologically Beech is a bit of an enigma. The run actually starts on Edgemon Creek and if you look at the Edgemon Creek gorge and follow its path to the confluence of Beech and then follow that on down the entire gorge on a grand scale is in a straight line. Possibly tracing a fault line. The run also cuts its way down through sandstone down to limestone. The lower end of the creek literally has caves, cracks and undercuts along the route where the waters disappear in drier times which I've always suspected make the run so hard to catch.

You can pour 4 inches of rain on the watershed in 2 hours and 5 hours later the creek will be too low to run.

I'm not much of a photographer so most of my shots from this collection are in places where it was easier to take pictures. I took over 50 from the boat but most I had to delete because they were blurry or water on the lens. http://www.flickr.com/photos/18769938@N ... 25792/show

I've always been a little disappointed with the photos of Beech but simply put there's about 5 or 6 Class IV drops on Beech that have no photo and not even named because paddlin' it ya just really don't have the time. There's always a few scouts on Beech and Beech Ball on of the named Class IV's always gets photographed. I took several photos there one great one of Chuck Bewley in the runout below the drop.

The other mandatory scout is Beech Falls. I did managed to get this short bit of footage of Bob "Half the Paddle Twice the Man" Brewer and he perfectly lined the drop just left of one of THE MOST dramatic rooster tails in Arkansas. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVIWm5Q1xFk

Well anyways - an ole timer up at the Deer Cafe told me the other day all the hornet nests were built low to the ground this year. "A sure fired sign of a hard winter," he said.

After our second tropical depression - I'm anything but! The outlook is positive the ground water table at least for now has been recharged and the paddlin' this winter might be some of the best we've had in a decade. Boy at least its started off the pre-fall real good.

Oh the rest of the trip report...

Wade Colewell, Bob Brewer, Chuck Bewley, Jeremy "Peanut", Scott Hanshaw, Lance Jones and me.

All smiles, lots of fun, sun burnt, and took off by 2:30pm. As they say in the commercial, "It don't get any better than that!"

[Susan Tinker]

Awesome pictures and thanks for sharing that. It is just beautiful. You are so fortunate to be able to paddle that well .. I should have started earlier in life ... the things we don't see unless you are paddling!
Loved the smiles as you made it through!
Thanks again for sharing that ... where exactly in the Ozarks is that?
susan

[Fish]

Thanks for the new report and the links to the old ones, Shelby. It's a great creek and I feel lucky to have caught it a few times over the years. Hard to imagine what it's like if you haven't been there. Like the Upper Yough indeed, if the Upper Yough had trees in it, more hazards, was more continuous, much more remote, and only ran once a year! Ryan Center ran it for his first time this year at a fat level and it's his favorite run now. That outta tell ya something!

- Fish

[Don Harwood]

Nice report, great pics!
Great footage too! :)

[Lazer]

After 13 years of creekin' in the Ozarks I finally got to catch Beech Creek. It was worth the wait. It's not as steep and hairy as some of the creeks out there, but it offers lots more class III/IV drops than any of them! And to catch it in September in shorts and full on sun was just unbelievable. It was so warm, we turned on the A/C as we drove away.

Thanks to Shelby for showing us his favorite Ozark Creek!

Here are some photos from Beech on Sunday and Richland on Monday.

[RandyJ]

Congrats to all for catching this special run. Always a memorable trip. How does Wade do that? He paddles - what - once every two years??? Good write-ups. And what ever happened to Tom Lewis?

[shelbyjohnson]

Awesome pictures and thanks for sharing that. It is just beautiful. You are so fortunate to be able to paddle that well .. I should have started earlier in life ... the things we don't see unless you are paddling!
Loved the smiles as you made it through!
Thanks again for sharing that ... where exactly in the Ozarks is that?
susan

Susan,

Thank ya kindly for the compliments I thank my lucky stars for being able to enjoy life.

Beech is a tributary of the upper Buffalo in Newton County, Arkansas. It comes into the Buffalo right by a place named Boxley. A lot of folks haven't heard about it that much because is just doesn't get run that much because its so hard to catch. There are some years that go by when the creek doesn't get run at all but when it does odds are someone on this forum here will have stories afterwards.

[shelbyjohnson]

Congrats to all for catching this special run. Always a memorable trip. How does Wade do that? He paddles - what - once every two years??? Good write-ups. And what ever happened to Tom Lewis?

I have no idea how he does it. Of the 6 or 7 times I've got to run the creek at least 3 of them have been with Wade. He has a knack for knowing when to get out I guess. After a minute on the creek he's right back to A Game.

Tom is still in the Rock raisin' 3 boys. He got a bike last year and started riding to stay fit and occaisionally makes a trip or two down to Rockport. I think he's been biding his time until the boys are ready to take up boatin' and once they do I suspect he'll be getting out with them.

[shelbyjohnson]

Thanks to Shelby for showing us his favorite Ozark Creek!

Here are some photos from Beech on Sunday and Richland on Monday.

Anytime RoughRider thanks for the shots!

[turboturtle]

The Beech shots were the best Ray! I'm just a little jeolous. I have a feeling that this will be my season to hit this and a few others on my wish list. I went for four to five years with no creek boat. So as to be safe, Richland, Baker, Bobtail... Tot! go's without saying,were my playboat favorites. I bought Tracy's Creeker 225 at last years RDV and have as of yet a proper opportunity to use it. I've plenty of vacation time and have spent the last year preparing them for a good season to come. You call, We'll haul! You got my #!

[ScottH]

I too have been aggressively trying to catch this elusive run for at least 6 years now. This was my fourth or fifth time to drive the 3+ hours to the takeout and look at the gauge and finally see what was needed. I would love to catch it with lots of water but really enjoyed it at the level we got. It was still amazing scenery but I guess I saw it different than most of the previous runners have. As the trees were still very green and leafy, the sun was shining and we got off several hours before dark.

Richland the next day with full sun and great friends capped off one hell of a couple of weeks. I would wish for another storm but my dad (who lives in Baytown TX, SE of Houston) needs some time to recover before I go have fun from another storm like that one.

Scott

[Ryan Center]

Another aspect of Beech for those of you that don't know, is the scenery.
It's AWESOME! Reminds me a lot of the hailstone. The only bad thing is, at higher water, you don't really get the time to soak it all in for your fling down class IV rapids for what seems like non stop the whole 6 miles. I will be running Beech this fall, because I think it's going to run.

[Fish]

I'm with you Ryan. Speaking of Bobtail... :) What's the best way to run shuttle on Bobtail (and also Falling water) these days? Can the landslide be taken out of the equation?

- Fish

[canoe]

Probably the best shuttle option for Bobtail is Putin, drive to Witt Springs, then to Snowball, then to Stack Rock. Or ask PAM to do the north route of Richland and pick you up..dale