May 2010 and the spring rains have come to Arkansas! The Buffalo River has a seasonal flow and it is fantastic. Although we had taken our daughter Sophia to the Buffalo on her first float, it was a calm section further downstream. This year we headed upstream with some friends and took on the section from Ponca to Kyles Landing. We’ve been on this section numerous times for many years but this time it was different with a four year old in tow. Although we checked the river levels prior to heading down to Ponca, the water was still moving a little quicker than we expected. Knowing we could pull out at Steele Creek a couple of miles downstream we went ahead and tested the waters to see how Sophia would react to the quicker pace. We set up the 17 ft Old Town and took off. The boat shot off like a rocket ship as we left the eddy and found the main current. It wasn’t long before we found a bit of white water and Sophia screamed with pure bliss! It was on and so were we. Our day was highlighted by some good white water that drenched my wife and daughter with spray. During this section my wife and I gripped our paddles with such tension that we had white knuckles and relaxed only when finding a nice eddy. Throughout the day Sophia altered the air with her screams of “Do it again”!
We found that quicker water led to having to entertain less. Stops where still frequent, basically anytime we saw sand we let Sophia explore and dig around. A bucket and shovel of some sort is always a necessity and lead to many discoveries by our daughter in the early years. We enjoyed car camping at Steele Creek with our friends Zach and Laura. The only real bumble was my attempt to pass off a Bratwurst I had dropped on the ground, my wife called me out when she felt the crunching of pebbles as she ate it. For the record it was my intention to eat it ;)
We found that quicker water led to having to entertain less. Stops where still frequent, basically anytime we saw sand we let Sophia explore and dig around. A bucket and shovel of some sort is always a necessity and lead to many discoveries by our daughter in the early years. We enjoyed car camping at Steele Creek with our friends Zach and Laura. The only real bumble was my attempt to pass off a Bratwurst I had dropped on the ground, my wife called me out when she felt the crunching of pebbles as she ate it. For the record it was my intention to eat it ;)