Big Bite: A 100-mile Paddle from Batesville to Augusta

Ee gad, don't try this at home unless you're either insane or a person of your convictions.  We put-in below the dam (#1) at Batesville at 9 in the morning.   After passing the city's waste water treatment plant, we started a long journey out of the foothills of the Ozarks into the Central Delta of Arkansas.  I tried to make 33 miles per day and do the trip to Augusta in three days, but suddenly, around Oil Trough, we lost the current and the wind cranked up out of the north. Every northbound reach was perilous and exhausting.  I only made 23 miles the first day.  27 the next.  31 the third. We made Augusta in the early afternoon on the fourth.  My body was gone; fingers cracked and oozing from the bitter wind and constant wet.

Passing a half-sunk barge near Newport on the
White River. (Photo: Jim Fortune)

The river changed on this trip from clear and green to turbid and pea-green.  There are observable causes for this that I'll write more about later.  For now, let it be a warning to floaters from Batesville south: the current right now slows to 1 mph and fighting a headwind here leaves no muscle untested.  The good news:  only 200 miles to go.

We're Front Page News in Des Arc...!

Look Who's In the Canoe ! (On Sunday, Mar 4th--9am)

On Sunday at 9am, we'll be at Monte Ne put-in to paddle BalladHunter along the ruins.  More importantly, I will have local historian Allyn Lord (Director of the The Shiloh Museum of Ozark History) in the bow  answering questions about Coin Harvey, the history of the old resort, and recent efforts to preserve it.  Come down and paddle around with us.  The weather is supposed to be fine.  


Incidentally, Allyn is a partner with me on White River Memoirs, an oral history project described at http://www.whiterivermemoirs.blogspot.com.


Update: The "ruins float" was most satisfying and informative. It was freezing and socked in when we left the shore but by the time I got the camera running, the sky cleared and the sun struck the old Monte Ne Tower like a cymbal.  Allyn proved once again to be the 'professor of Coin Harvey,' and a great on-camera presence even with a nasty spider bite on her forehead...which we adroitly covered with a ski cap.  I will get some video clips up asap. 

White River Canoe Voyage Starts March 4, 2012

The plans are now in place for my canoe journey to begin on March 4, 2012, at 10am at Monte Ne Ruins put-in.  I have visited the river at twenty different places during the past six months, and feel the reconnaissance is complete.

 I will begin at the headwaters of the White River near Pettigrew and Elkins, then proceed across the various impoundments, ultimately arriving in Bull Shoals Dam in early April, weather permitting.  

From the Bull Shoals tail water, I will enjoy the support of an experienced river man who has offered to follow me in a motorboat during my paddle to Batesville and beyond.  

As you may know by now, I have partnered with the Shiloh Museum of the Ozarks to create White River Memoirs, the Spoken History of a Liquid Legend.  The majority of the interviews will be recorded during my adventure in April, 2012.

I looking forward to meeting you along the way!