Topaz To Twin Bridges Questions

[Riverwhy]

Make sure the water is up and be cautious with the landowners along the route.

[chub minnow]

We had Justin shuttle us up to Topaz a couple years back and floated back down to their place at exactly the same time of year. The water is very skinny until Indian Creek comes in. If you can read the channel and have your boat balanced, it's navigable. Slow, but navigable. We were loaded down but only had to get out a few times. Strainers were an issue, one was bad enough I think some guys got out and lined around it. If you've done the upper King's, this section would compare well with starting at Marble and going to Rockhouse. It constantly picks up water as you move downstream. The water was high enough that we had to unload boats and carry over one low water bridge, other than that it was pretty much cake.

We had no problem finding campsites although we did encounter one landowner just below Topaz that was extremely surprised to see us floating that section and warned us not to camp in that area as "some of his neighbors were not as friendly as he is". The smallmouth fishing up there was decent as I remember, but we spent more time covering ground than fishing because the shuttle is extremely long from Sunburst and we were behind schedule before we got started.

Plan on paddling a lot until you get down by Hebron. After that you can pretty much sit back and steer.

[Jeff_L]

Thanks for all this information. We floated Upper Kings (Marshall Ford to Trigger) a couple years back and cruised. But the year before we floated the upper Eleven Point, above the springs, and that generally sucked. Lots of dead pools and paddling, the sort of water where a headwind sent you backwards. Also have floated Upper Jack's and dealt with lots of strainers. Assuming water levels are normal or above, is there constant flow, or is it slow pools? I get that it changes after Indian also. Would be fine with dealing with skinny water, not as excited to deal with no flow water.

A little concerned about the landowner comments. I was planning on camping between Osborn Ford and Hale Ford. We will have a mess of people, probably 7 or 8 canoes, but are respectful and go out of our way to make friends with landowners and leave their property as we found it. Any intelligence on whether we are going to have trouble?

[Al Agnew]

I would be hesitant to have that many people in one group up there. A group like that is going to be visible and probably audible, no matter how respectful they are, and while you technically have a perfect right to float it and camp, a landowner that might not notice one or two canoes and wouldn't care if they did would possibly be much more upset about a group of 8 canoes descending upon his gravel bar. This is just my opinion, but I think these headwater sections just don't lend themselves to large groups.

[Riverwhy]

I agree with Al. I have been hesitant to say much but some of the landowners there are dangerous. You have every right to float and camp but do not go unarmed. I've had bad experiences there and it resulted in a threat of violence. First from the landowner and then from my group. There has been no further confrontations for several years. I prefer to end my contribution with this post.

[Jeff_L]

_{Thanks or the info and I understand. We have floated the upper parts of pretty much every stream with zero landowner difficulties, but I certainly don't want to get in a pissing match with landowners with weapons, especially not after what happened on the Current a couple years back. We will explore floating downstream, or maybe just Hebron down to Blair, I assume that is more traveled and has fewer problems with camping?}

_{I was thrown off by the upper part of the river being in the national forest meaning there wouldn't be too many landowners around.}

[Jeff_L]

Thanks for the info, everyone. Our revised trip will be from Hebron to Blair over two days. We will likely camp either a mile above or a mile below the CC bridge/Hammond, looks like plenty of sand bars and that land looks heavily forested and perhaps less likely to get us shot.

Any thoughts? That puts us camping in the more traditionally traveled area.

[Nick Williams]

Last summer, we used a gravel bar that was downstream of Twin Brindges, just past a low water bridge I believe. It was on an inside bend, a riffle to keep the bugs and for some background noise, and even a few will smallmouth were there too!

[Dan Kreher]

Probably a good plan to switch to from Hebron down for a group that large. Both in terms of finding a large enough gravel bar for a group of that size and in not dealing with any problem landowners upstream. I did an over night trip from Osborne Ford (the lwb below Indian Creek) to North Fork Rec Area (Hammond Camp in float guide) in May 3 years ago. Very nice water for a small group above Hebron. Camped on sharp left hand turn about 1.5 miles below Hebron. Small but decent site for a couple of tents with an nice bluff hole below.

Day tripped from Topaz down to Osborne the prior year in early June (self shuttled). Nice water but pretty skinny that far up. Better fishing found below the first small creek that comes in on river right with increased size/volume.

Enjoy your trip. I am anxious to go myself.

[Jeff_L]

Thanks for the info. This trip is a highlight every year. Always fun to convince others to subsidize your exploration of Ozark headwaters. This one is easy to plan. Upper Kings a couple years ago was much more logistically challenging with a big group. The year we put in on the Upper Buffalo in a thunderstorm and the river ended up cresting over 9 feet was exciting, although the copperhead bite topped the river cresting, and the Joplin tornado easily topped all that excitement.

I will try to post a trip report when we are finished.