Buzzards, Turtles, and Wind--but no Buffalo
Submitted by George Granlund
Photos by George Granlund and Theron Brayman
click to enlarge
Take pure, clear, flowing water: send it down a 132-mile meandering course; pour it over rapids; strain it through gravel bars; drift it through long pools; let it caress tree-covered banks. Then punctuate the shores with frequent, tall multicolored bluffs; and fill the countryside with steep, wooded hills. Now interject countless turtles sunning on logs; watch dozens of buzzards lazily looping across the sky, be startled by a bass breaking the water surface; and observe a heron stalking the river’s edge. Finally, place yourself in a kayak drifting down the river surrounded by the peaceful and inspiring mood of these natural elements. Now you have the essence of the Buffalo National River.
Flowing water, relatively free from pollution and impoundment, was the primary purpose of Buffalo River becoming the nation’s first National River in 1972. The Buffalo River is one of the Nation’s last major rivers that are still free-flowing. Its ancient current gives life to well over 300 species of fish, insects, freshwater mussels and aquatic plants. In addition to the thriving aquatic life, on land there are many more natural wonders to behold: caves with hidden formations, untrodden passageways, pits and sinks and underground waterways; tall cliffs that create long waterfalls; old pioneer farmsteads that provide foraging for numerous wildlife species such as elk and whitetail deer, wild turkey, bobwhite quail and many other species of wildlife waiting to experienced.
Thus sayeth the promotional literature from the park service. And it’s all true. Sixteen of us made the long drive from chilly Michigan to pleasantly warm Arkansas on Good Friday. We ranged in age from eighty-something John to twenty-something Linnea, and in experience from 5th time down the river to many first time Buffalo River paddlers. Because of other commitments, Phil drove in from Utah and he and Theron caught up with the rest of the group at the outfitters. We used Buffalo River Outfitters, located in Silver Hill, Arkansas, hard by the Buffalo River. They provided us with the shuttle drivers needed to drop us off at Woolum.
Woolum is just a place name on the river and is about as far up as is navigable with canoes and long kayaks during most of the year. That far upstream, the river is fed almost totally by rain runoff along with a few springs. During low water, you would have to put in at the US 65 bridge and bang along the rocks until the small tributaries fill up the river. There is a website that gives current and historical river levels (http://www.buffaloriverandrain.com/levelreport.html)that you can reference to see what the conditions are. Compare the levels with April 17-20, 2004. On those dates, the river levels were nearly ideal for paddling.
Jim Sage, Jim Ledtke, and Margie Black provided vehicles for transportation to the Buffalo and we unloaded in the rain in Woolum. The sky was pewter during most of the day and we paddled less than 10 miles downstream the first day to try to get camp set up before the skies let loose. It wasn’t a convenient campsite given the potential for a rapid rise in river level. The river has been known to rise a foot an hour when its raining heavily in the mountains upstream and we didn’t want to witness that firsthand.
The first day paddling and camping together gave us a good opportunity to get to know one another and share experiences. John Kalam (I hope I spelled your name right John) has been around the world and has more stories than the rest of us put together, so we had hoped to glean some insight to the world from him. Unfortunately, he fell ill and decided it was best to take out at Tyler Bend and recuperate rather than taking a chance on the rest of the river.
On Easter Sunday, the sun was bright and temperatures hovered around 70 degrees. That brought out the many turtles, or “sliders” as they are known locally. They were sunning themselves on logs, and sometimes we’d startle them as we paddled by, and then a dozen or so would slide, plunk, or tumble down into the water.
That night we stayed near a river access point called Maumee North. This provided another gravel bar to camp on, but with proximity to nice, clean outhouse facilities. An example of our tax dollars at work. An architect, Bill Ahlstrom was meticulous with his campfire construction. Both of the last two nights, he set up wonderful fires for us to sit around and share wine, food, and stories of past adventures.
For those of you considering a trip down the Buffalo, I need to mention that you can camp anywhere, fires are permitted, no itinerary or permits are required, and there are no fees. As we all know, that’s exceedingly rare in these times of increased regulation and “user fees”.
I can’t speak for what everyone saw, but in terms of wildlife, I saw a heron rookery, wild turkeys, striped bass, suckers, bald eagles, turtles of course, kingfishers, many osprey, hundreds of buzzards, a salamander, and a very few blackflies. At night, we heard coyotes howling, owls hooting, and someone else snoring. And at about 5:00 a.m., a very loud whip-poor-will commuted downriver to our campsite to wake us up each morning. During our last day on the river, the wind tested our mettle.
Even though the river snakes around and we faced nearly every point on the compass, the wind seemed to always be in our face. We guessed that it was a steady 20 MPH and was gusting to 35 MPH at times. The bright sunshine helped to ease the strain, but most of us will be talking about the high winds during that last day for some time. When we got to the takeout at Buffalo City, John was there to greet us and everyone got together for hugs, a group picture, and to say our goodbyes. It’s tough to capture a great trip in words- we met new friends, shared a little adversity, enjoyed the good life one more time, and catalogued some memories.