Kayaking - North Fork of the White River

 Kayaking - North Fork of the White River

It was an hour and a half drive to today's paddle and Betty rode with us.  We put in at the CC Bridge at the North Fork Recreation area and took out at the Blair access.  There were 8 of us today as Liz left to drive back to Florida, thinking it didn't look like a good day.  (Mustang) Sally who lives in Missouri also met us.  This was a really great river as we passed over mini riffles.  This is a new word we learned from Betty's Missouri River guide.  A riffle is a section of the river that has some waves and a bit of white water.  Soon after we started down the river, we saw a blue spring on the left side.  It is these numerous springs that make these rivers so crystal clear.  There were several rocky gravel bars along the way and about noon, we stopped for lunch.  Also on this river, there's a spring on the right that comes out from what looks like an old, abandoned bridge or possibly mill relic.  At one point, we had to paddle under a low bridge.  This came up quickly after a fast section of the river so we had to scoot down quickly to get low enough.  The fun part of this river is that you often have a choice to go in calmer water or through riffles.  William had warned us of "Skullkrusher Falls" so we paddled with great anticipation to reach it.  It is actually a small drop-off, but we enjoyed telling embellished stories of our accomplishment.  We even saw a bald eagle on this river which made it an even more perfect day.  At the end, we all agreed that this had been our favorite paddle of the week and we could have paddled longer on this river.  We drove the hour and a half back to Eminence and ate at Hogan's Hideout, a bar and eatery.  Scotty had a bacon cheeseburger and I had a mushroom Swiss burger.  Scotty had a Blue Moon and I tried a Hot Pink Barbie mixed drink which was really good.  After dinner we said goodbye to the remaining kayakers (6 of us) and expressed hope that we'd see each other again next year.