Arkansas Canoe Club Forums

Have a group of 6 from Athens GA. wanting to paddle the buffalo through the wilderness section.
one tandem boat, rest solos.
I'll take all advice I can get. Shuttle service, Hotel to stay first night, it's a 11 hour drive, is Shipps
the best take out? All of us are very experienced paddlers with white water backgrounds in canoes.
Thanks in advance.

P.S. we all love to fish.

Bob

We have a regular crowd that floats that section almost every year around Columbus day.
It is a fantastic float that is different from any other section as with no public accesses there is no day floaters.
This has been a wet summer so expect good water, however that low on the river it is always possible to float.
We do not use a shuttle service, we run our own.
We do use Shipps Ferry as our take out. Upstream to Buffalo City is possible but no fun....
At the confluence of the Buffalo and White there is a large island, go river right.
Depending on how many generators are running upstream, the area where the rivers meet can have some tricky eddies.
Usually we group the boats together and 'barge' our way downstream as no paddling is required on this section.
Get your trout stamp and fish your way down to the take out.

thank you Paddledog. We plan on going first week in October and
were not sure of the take out so thanks for the info.

Bob "Traveler"
Member of the "Unknown Legends"
someday, today will be a long time ago
paddle today

Steve pretty well covered it, but I'll just add that last time I had a vehicle shuttled from Rush to Shipps it was $70. I like to use Buffalo River Float Service for my lower Buff needs (that actually sounds kinda pervy ), and I agree that going on down to Shipps is preferable to taking out at Buffalo City. Looks like you've done your homework. That's an outstanding time to be on the Buff. Hope y'all have a great trip!

thanks for the info...looking forward to this trip.


bob

Looks like the guys covered the river portion of the trip but didn't touch on your hotel for the night before the launch. Two closest hotels to the Hwy 14 bridge/Rush area will be either in Yellville (about 15 miles north from bridge) which is the Marion-Carlton Inn (866-945-7678) or the Marshall Motel in Marshall (about 16 miles west from the bridge). Phone number is 870-448-3357 (tell Gay that Roger and Cowper sent you).

Yellville's might be a little better than Marshall's but I've stayed in both (depending on where I am when I need the room) and I have no problems with either as both are clean when it comes to bed linens, etc. Marshall will be a little less expensive than Yellville. Restaurants are about equal in both places.

Check in with Wild Bill's for some advice on what the fish might be hitting. They carry some plastics (crawdads, etc.) that might work for your trip. The shuttle service, BRFS, can probably give you help there as well.


Hope this helps.