Floating Ozark Rivers

We moved back to My Corner of the Ozarks on May 29, 2004. One thing we had missed about the Ozarks was "floating". That's what we call paddling down a river in canoe or kayak. 

One of the resons I started this blog was to show our friends back in Illinois what it was like living in My Corner of the Ozarks. We have had many visitors from Illinois and many of them have floated the river with us. I posted the "Hall of Fame" on this blog to honor our Illinois visitors (see blog post on Nov. 30, 2010). 

A year after our return to the Ozarks, we purchased a canoe. Before that we rented a canoe. We also rented when we had large family groups floating together. 

Our first family group was a Nuttle float in 2004. The David family floated four times (2005, 2007, 2009, 2011). 

Over the years I kept track of each float trip in a little booklet. Who went? Time put in and taken out? Birds seen? Number of turtles seen? Weather?  

From 2004 to 2025 we took 67 float trips. Most were Larry and Linda floats. A few were with son Brad or brother-in-law Kent.

In 2018-2023 I floated four times with a group from Illinois fearlessly led by Jerry Sanders. 

In 2018 the Illinois group included the late Bob Dickey. It was my first time on the Eleven Point River which is in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.

Over the years most of our floats were on the Jack's Fork. Current River was a close second with a few on Eleven Point. The Current and Jack's Fork make up the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, the nation's  first national scenic rivers, established in1964.

2008 was an unusual year on the Jack's Fork River. That summer the river level remained high enough to float all summer. I floated nine times on the Jack and managed in five trips to float the entire length from the Prongs to Two Rivers where it empties into the Current River. 

As I mentioned, many Illinois friends visited and floated over the years. See below. 

Dean and the late Julie Summers

Sue Kean and Susie Kinzinger

Homer and Jane Foster

Johnson:  Eric, Amy, Jake, Zach, Alec, Isaiah

We seem to be at the end of our "floating lives". We went zero times in 2022, once in 2023, 2024, and 2025 each. We have really slowed down. The last couple of years we have rented kayaks or canoes because we didn't want to load, haul, carry, etc. 

This is Linda paddling to our "last take-out" on September 12, 2025. 

Nice Old Town Discovery 17 ft. canoe for sale. Only been in the water about 60 times.