FIRST TRIP DOWN SPADRA CREEK WAS FUN, BUT .....

[CAPTAIN ALEVE]

Four paddlers who had never been down Spadra Creek before thoroughly enjoyed our Saturday 5/9/09 trip from the bridge with the gage on down to Clarksville. The water level was about 4.8 on the internet gage. We just missed getting rained on. It drizzeled on us for a few minutes close to the put-in, but when I looked at the radar summary afterwards I saw that everything downstream (all the way to Lousiana) got hit by strong storms. Indeed, a creek close to the take-out was running in big and brown.

I want to make some comments on the creek description shown on the Ozark Creek Information Summary website. First, it was no surprise that the willow covered gravel bars had shifted over the years and it seemed like you could no longer follow the routing called out in the description. That was not a lproblem; the correct path was fairly easy to discern. I think the description should have placed more emphasis on the hazardous dam at the water plant. Here is a quote: "The hydraulic below the dam is a death trap so be sure you get to the right to avoid it." They should have said "The dam is a DEATH TRAP, DO NOT PADDLE OVER IT. There is a narrow, man-made, concrete chute on river right that allows you to safely bypass the dam. The entrance to the chute is about 100 feet upstream of the dam. Be prepared to portage if the entrance to the chute is blocked by drift." The entrance was blocked by logs and sediment when we were there; it was not visible. We didn't know what to look for and thought that we were supposed to run over the dam on the right and slide down the paved apron or something. After getting out and scouting, experienced eyes said no way are we going over that!

It would be great if some ACC members would adopt the chute and clear it of debris regularly or work with the city to see that it is maintained. It could also use some smoothing at the low end where there has been enough settlement to produce a step up of about 6" in the concrete paving. Posting some sort of warning sign would help, too.

I'm sure I'll be going back to paddle Spadra again.

Captain Aleve, alias Mike Coogan