Buffalo River Ice Storm???

[kshof]

Anyone know if the middle stretch Mt. Olive to 65 Bridge area is floatable? Surely there were some trees down. I'm wanting to float here in the next few weeks and wondering if it can be done.

Kirby in LR

[Clif]

Most of the ice damage was from the top down... higher elevations got it worse. Not sure where Mt Olive is. The river as I understand did not have lots of the big trees down that went on top.

The level is kinda low tho.

[kshof]

I meant Mt. Hershey not Mt. Olive, sorry wrong river. Hope we get some rain.
K

[Cowper]

Surely there were some trees down. I'm wanting to float here in the next few weeks and wondering if it can be done.

Just based on the fact that several of our much smaller streams have been found to be in better shape than expected, I'm sure the Buffalo will be good to go. The standard precautions apply - after any big storm, you might round a bend and find a tree has fallen across the river or washed in and blocked a key spot in a rapid. But you should find that to be the exception rather than the rule; just apply the standard precautions; keep your eyes open and don't run any blind corners unless you can see ahead to the next place where you could eddy out (pull over) if needed.

If you want more details, like maybe campground or road closings, you could call the NPS headquarters (870) 365-2700

[Richard]

Any tree close to the river that would have been susceptible to ice damage would have been taken out by the two major floods last spring. As mentioned before, at river level there is very little sign of ice damage. It all occurred at higher elevations. I have been on the lower and middle Buffalo since the ice storm and there is no blockage due to the ice.