Picture From Last Weekend-

[GloryDaze]

Here is the link to view my pictures from this weekend- I floated from Gilbert to Rush and spent 3 nights and 4 days on the river- I will have a trip report later....

The pictures are on pages 1 and 2- I just wanted to tell you that because MR SUMO is on page 2 and he was fun to catch....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glorydaze/

[Terry Beeson]

Wow... Nice pictures of a great looking trip! Old age and bad knees and back won't let me do that anymore, but would love to do it again... Thanks for sharing...

I was at Boxley canyon Saturday afternoon looking at the elk myself. Did you see any?

[GloryDaze]

Terry-

I didn't see any Elk, however a local man told me they have been spotted as far downstream as Rush Landing. As a matter of fact, it was a slow 4 days for any animal viewing except for that on Bald Eagle.

I hope you enjoyed viewing the Elk, I've never seen them and have only been up near Boxley one time. Heck, bad knees, back, old age.... at least you can still enjoy such a beautiful area as the Buffalo river!! I know soooo many people here in Kansas City that get so caught up in the hustle and bustle and could never imagine the serenity a river like that has.

You should see the funny looks I get when I tell them I'm going on a 3-night 4-day trip by myself into the Boston mountains..... it's priceless

[Andy & JoAnne]

Thanks for sharing. I viewed all of them. It makes me home sick. Hope to be there soon

[Ham]

It was hard for me to tell if you were solo camping on the Buffalo. Nights are a LOT longer without electricity and especially if you are going solo.

The photos were very nice.

[Jim: NE/OK]

Thanks for sharing your great pictures! I didn't count, but it appeared you had a different yak for each trip. Did you carry all your gear, chair and all, in your yak?

Jim

[GloryDaze]

Well, I had 2 kayaks to start the year and realized I like the Orange SINK better then the beige SOT. I ended up selling the SOT this last weekend- I did fit everything into my Yak including the chair. I had people tell me it was impossible to fit what I did in there but here is a list (Honest Truth).. If you look close enough in all the pictures you will see that all of this listed below is there- This went with quite a bit of trial and error and downsizing on everything and I am pretty heavy to start the trip, but I really do not go without any luxuries....

It's actually pretty fun to see how many days I could go- I've come to the conclusion if I were to take out the beer and just sip on whiskey. I could easily make it 6-8days without having to re-supply. (HEY, THAT GIVES ME AN IDEA, MAYBE IS SHOULD FLOAT THE WHOLE RIVER IN THE SPRING!!!)

- 4 Coolers

* One big one that went behind me on top

* The other 3 were smaller so 2 went behind my seat and the last one went in my rear dry hatch

- 1 case of COLD beer

- 1 case of water

- Sleping Bag

- Sleeping Pad

- Chair

- All meals (3 a day)

- Tent

- 2 Plastic bottles of Rum

- 12 sodas

- 2 fishing poles and small tackle box

- 2 paddles

- Tarp

- Clothes (extra shoes, hooded sweatshirt, pants)

- 1 Small dry bag that has... (lighter, head lamp, cups, TP, firestarter, First aid kit) etc.... in it

- Lifejacket

[jdmidwest]

Great pics. Was that a 12' yak or 14"? Hard to believe you packed all that stuff and still sit above waterline. How did the boat handle loaded that heavy?

[GloryDaze]

JD- It's 12'6 long

The only issue I had was a lot of dragging on day one- However, I would have had my fair share even if I was empty the water as really low. I have actually come up with a pretty good system on distributing the weight pretty evenly so it isn't too bad.

She definitely is a little sluggish and a little harder to make a sharp turn with- The biggest problem I have is when I have to make a hard turn one way to dodge a strainer and then immediately swing it around the other way. The heavy end (stern) wants to go with the current and it's hard to rudder it around if the current is too strong.

I have floated about 100 mile this year in this kayak and 100 in my other, so I'm used to having a heavy load I suppose.

It's a great kayak with a ton of storage and bungees and plenty of leg room, I'm a little taller 6'4 or so- I use it 99.9% in the Ozark streams and it fits my needs perfect!

Maybe some of us can get together sometime and do a 2 nighter- I've only got 6 months until I'm offficially married, ughh