Illinois River, Oklahoma Oct 16-18
Put In: No Head Hollow Public Access
Take Out: Sparrow Hawk Camp (12 mile paddle)
Along on this Trip: Nine members of the DDRC: Earl and Alec Atnip, Caryn Lowe, Nadine Lapierre, Pat Chamberlin, Carla and James, Bud Lang, Wes Trammel
This time of year in the Ozarks the trees are just starting to turn color and the temperatures have begun to cool a bit so this makes for a good time to be on this river. The college crowd is gone for the season and there are few people on the river. I arrived about 3:30pm as I got away from work by 11:30. I put a few things up and went on a run for about 7miles. When I got back Bud Lang had arrived and was setting up his camp. I had stopped at a place just up the highway and picked up a nice load of firewood as the temps were to be in the low 40s and I wanted to sleep by the fire. Alec arrived about 6:30 and we made some dinner then sat by the fire as Pat, Caryn, and Nadine arrived. After some fireside chats everyone called it a night about 9pm. Alec and I pulled our bags up next to the fire and bedded down. The sky was clear and temps dropping fast with some great star gazing. The clouds moved in around midnight and the temps warmed a bit.
It was great to get away from the city sounds and replace them with coyotes, owls, and a few rowdy coons. I awoke my normal 4am but decided to stay laying until about 6:30 then got up and made Alec and I a great breakfast, Bacon, Sausage, Fried Eggs over medium, toast with jelly, and more bacon. Everyone else got moving and we actually got to the put in at 9:30 then ran all the vehicles back to Sparrow Hawk and I brought the drivers back upstream and left my truck there. We were on the water paddling by 10:15 and if you know DDRC you would know this is about 2hrs early. The water flow was about 200 cfs and clear with temps in the 50s and overcast, great day to paddle. As we paddled we came across a few people fishing and some others camped out along the river above the mid-point.
We arrived at the mid-point about 12:20 and broke out lunch as a group from Falcon outfitters were loading about 12-15 people on the river. After lunch the sun began to peek out and we made our way down the gentle water and came to a taller cliff on river left where Alec and I had camped in January. We stopped and took a look around as the gravel bar we camped on was gone, wiped out from the spring floods and a large log jam on river left just upstream had changed the course of the river. While you could still camp here you will not find a good place to hang a hammock as the large sycamore trees are laying in the river and the 8ft tall gravel bar is now river and the newly formed gravel bars are very clean with little to no firewood. My personal note for campsite for my next trip is to make camp upstream from the mid-point on river left by the bluffs. You can see that someone has been trying to burn up the log jam but it is very solid filled with rock and dirt. It is going to be a long time before the river returns to its normal path through this zone.
After lunch everyone got back to a gentle stride of paddling around a few strainers and log jams. We arrived at Sparrow Hawk about 3pm which provided plenty of time to kick back, clean up and enjoy some adult beverages and appetizers before we started on our potluck. The appetizers alone were enough to feed a small country. Dinner was a mix of chicken pasta, chili, pico degalo, lots of left over appetizers and a cake sitting around a great campfire. I hope nobody went hungry. We had a lot of laughs talking about prior trips and good discussion about upcoming trips.
After everyone called it a night Alec and I pulled up the bags and again made our bed by the fire. I got up about 3:30 to revive the fire and do some star gazing. About 5am you could see Venus rising in the eastern sky and soon followed by Jupiter and Mars. About 5am there was what sounded like a sonic boom coming from inside the ground and it woke Alec up also. Come to find out after I was back in Plano there was an earthquake in Guthrie and another north of us that morning so I think that is what we heard as the timing was right. Alec and I got up and again had a meat lovers breakfast then packed up and said our good byes to each other and the group and got on the road.
Some pictures,
At the put in
Caryn
Some of the crew
Carla, James and Nadine
Bud
The bluffs where I plan on camping in January
Meat lovers breakfast, bacon is always better outdoors
SYOTW,
Earl