ajayhawkfan wrote:That sounded like a great trip. I have floated most of the Buffalo at one time or another but never so many days in a row. It is a great river.
I am thinking of a Kaw river float from Manhattan (K State) to Lawrence (KU) this summer. Would you have any interest?
I too had done most of the Buffalo in two or three day stretches. I used to do two or three single-day trips in a long weekend. Finally figured out that the shuttles ate up all of the time. That, and I found a couple of friends that were willing to camp on gravel bars and load canoes with gear and food and not take the kitchen sink as in car camping.
Our goal, as written in my report, was to do the entire Buffalo. Drought conditions kept us from doing from Ponca to Ozark (Pruitt) and almost kept us from doing anything above Buff Point.
However, putting on at Buff Pnt and taking 6 to 8 days to get to Buff City would leave a lot of time for:
- hiking. Lots of trals intersect the river and there are plenty of opportunities in the LBW (lower buff wilderness) to take side hikes, get to the tops of bluffs, hike us side streams, etc.
- fishing. The high water we hit murked up the water so fishing wasn't good at all. Of course we weren't on a fishing trip so we didn't mind. Three of us had poles and minimal gear just in case.
I have floated the Kaw from Lawrence to DeSoto. Somewhat slow. A buddy did the Kaw from above Perry to Lawrence. Really slow. I have driven across the Kaw btw Manhattan and Topeka and it always seems really shallow and slow. Perhaps late spring would be a better choice?
Locally, floating the Missouri from Leavenworth (just north of the highway - MO R bridge) to Parkville (riverfront park) to downtown KC (Wheeler landing??) are a couple of really nice day trips. Lvn to Pvl is around 21 river miles. First time it took me, solo in a 15' canoe, <3hrs with minimal effort. The second time it took 3 of us in a 18' canoe 5.5 hrs and we paddled as one guy was missing his kids baseball banquet. The water levels were quite different. Gravel bars aren't very frequent as most of what you see are mud bars. Pretty though. Just above Parkville, a few years back, you could see clearly on the west bank the path through the woods the tornado took that touched down just downstream from Parkville on the east bank.
On the ride last Monday we crossed the Platte R a couple of times. With all of the rain/snow we have had it looked very floatable. Not sure of barbed wire strung across and similar. At both crossings MoDeCons had access points for fishing or hunting.
Let me know if you are headed out for a day trip. I and/or a local buddy might be interested.
Oh yeah, years ago, when I was younger and dumber, a friend and I took a canoe across the JoCoWater District diversion dam just down from 435 on the Kaw. Water was high enough it was flowing over the dam, not just through to j channel on river right. We got thrashed and trashed, as did the canoe. We finally got to shore, swimming, about a mile downstream. Then we had to bushwhack / portage back to our car. Don't try this stunt. We consider ourselves lucky to have lived. If you see kayakers there, they put in below and paddle up to play in the tailwater exiting the j-channel. Supposedly the dam is to be modified and made kayak safe to travel the j-channel.
So much for Troy making a motorcycling forum.
