Eastern Ozarks

[landcruiser]

Live in Batesville and looking for a place to take the wife kayaking thursday and Friday - anybody ever done the any of the south Missouri streams - Eleven Point, Jack's Fork, or the Current? Looking for a nice cabin, fun float with class 2 rapids. Have heard Emmence, MO is a nice little town?

[BEubanks]

Paddled 4 days, camping 3 nights, in summer of 1980 on Eleven point. Don't remember details of put in and take out, but ahhhh, that spring fed cold water was are real treat on a hot day. I don't know if it has become crowded like many other rivers, but usually an early start beats most of the crowd. At least there's always good current!

[Lupe]

Hi there,

The Current and Eleven Point are both good floats this time of year since both are spring fed and therefore have reliable flow. Jacks Fork will be too low without rain...

While both are very pretty, they have very few rapids. Class I mostly. Most challenging parts would be an occasional bend in the river to negotiate, but hardly any rapids. If you both will be in ww kayaks, you'll want to keep your trips pretty short each day as it will be a LOT of flatwater paddling. They also gets pretty crowded and obnoxious with drunken revelers on the weekends...you said Th/Fri, but with it being a long weekend it might be pretty crowded on Friday. If you do plan a trip up there, folks at http://www.paddling.net message board can provide a lot of info, or even just search that forum for those rivers to find info on trip itineraries.

Another option for a day trip for you would be the Spring (which I personally also would avoid on weekends!)...reliable flow and more "rapids" than the Current or Eleven Point (although still quite a lot of long pools to get through).

I'll give you more info on the Lil Mo dam release on the other thread!!!

[DanMo]

Love all of those rivers. Been floating them 20+ years, and there seems to always be more sections that I want to float if I only had time.

Eleven Point has one nice play wave just upstream from Riverton a mile or so. The locals call it "The falls". Makes me laugh to think of a 3-4 foot ledge drop as a falls, but the river has a lot of volume there and it is very signifigant to the rental canoe customers. I was there a couple of weeks ago on a weekend, and it provided hours of entertainment seeing the novices barely able to make it. Of course it is very easy but it makes a lot of noise. Also if you fish you just might catch the biggest trout of your life there.
My only beef is I think the eleven point can get so overgrown on the banks that any side hikes are epic. If you want to explore off the river banks do it in winter. The river left side borders the irish wilderness which is one of the biggest roadless areas in the state.

Also you might consider the North fork of the white and bryant creek. These sister rivers are in a very rugged part of the Ozarks and have a lot of springs on them too. They are often overlooked and much less traveled than the national rivers.

Welcome on your trip to Missouri and I hope you have a good time.