Friends of mine invited me to go rafting on the Current River. Otherwise, I would never consider Labor Day weekend floating.
Another factor against Labor Day weekend floating is the present hot weather. The sun is very intense promising every intention of causing heat stroke.
This three day weekend is now considered the last of the summer vacation time, so has lots of people leaving for a last summer fling. The Current River is a magnet for what seems too many of them.
Floating the Current River Memories
Over twenty years ago, I went canoeing on the Current River with a Missouri Conservation Department education class. This was much earlier in the summer and on a weekday so we were the only people out on the river.
Another such course had explored two caves near the Pulltite Campground. The upper one was a dry cave with little life in it. The lower one was a wet cave with a small stream running through it. We saw crickets, salamanders and more.
Today’s Labor Day Weekend Floating
The quiet Pulltite campground is now large with many improvements. It was crowded with campers, both in tents and campers. It is also headquarters for a river float company with canoes, kayaks and rafts.
The four of us loaded our coolers, sunscreen and us into a raft. There were lots of other people shoving off in canoes and very popular kayaks.
None of us were regular boaters so rowing was a haphazard affair. We managed to avoid the crowds of other floaters, swimmers and waders on our way down the river.
Adventures
This has been a dry summer, so the water level was low. We managed to strand our raft on several rarely covered gravel bars on our way down the river.
Past floods had brought down trees into the river. We avoided almost all of them, but got stranded on one. There was one we had to lie down flat in the raft to go under as we didn’t manage to avoid it.
The River
Several tall bluffs were a long the river. Many parts were deep and had people fishing for the large fish we could see swimming around.
Sycamores and other trees lined the shores, many leaning out over the water. Undergrowth was rampant. Many of the summer sunflower group grew: brown-eyed Susans, sneezeweed, Missouri coneflower were some I recognized. One bluff base was green with liverwort.
We managed to arrive at the landing area intact. Our Labor Day weekend floating trip was fun, but very tiring.