PSA Big River at St. Francois State Park

[Brian Jones]

If you put your raft in Big River at St. Francois State Park and head down river, you WILL NOT float a circle back to the park......It isn't a lazy river like at Six Flags..... I always thought that this was common knowledge. But once again I've been proven wrong...........

 

[snagged in outlet 3]

8 hours ago, Brian Jones said:

If you put your raft in Big River at St. Francois State Park and head down river, you WILL NOT float a circle back to the park......It isn't a lazy river like at Six Flags..... I always thought that this was common knowledge. But once again I've been proven wrong...........

 

White claw crew.  Showing up at a ramp near you when it’s broiling hot and you’re trying to take your boat out at noon to go home👎

[jdmidwest]

White Claw??

Was heading to our Private Creek this afternoon to cool off after working bees and met a car on our 1/4 mile private road.  They said they were meeting someone there to swim.  Seems like the idiot new neighbor has been inviting all to trespass against us.  Grandkid made short work of them with the whistling bottle rockets.  He aimed for the cars.

I work all week with the public, I don't need it on my privates.

[Al Agnew]

I've heard stories about people at canoe liveries who thought that...seems fairly common among the newbie party floaters.

Many, many years ago, I had taken my girlfriend to the M Highway bridge on Cedar Creek to swim.  At the time the creek was wide open from the bridge to its confluence with far upper Big River just 50 yards downstream, and there was a nice swimming hole under the bridge.  Both streams were mid-summer low, which meant that neither was even close to being floatable until they came together, and even afterward you wouldn't want to float Big River up there unless you were willing to drag the canoe down most of the riffles.  It was mid-afternoon when we heard aluminum scraping bottom down at the confluence.  Looked down there and there was a canoe with a couple in it that had obviously come down Big River.  This was the following conversation:

Canoe nimrods:  "Hey, you live around here?"

Me: "Not too far away."

Them:  "How far is it until the river gets bigger?"

How do you answer that?

Me:  "Where did you start out?"

Them:  "Up at Highway 21."

Highway 21 is about 4 miles upstream on Big River.

Me:  "When did you start out?"

Them:  "Early this morning."

So they had made it all of four miles in probably 8 hours.

Me:  "Where are you taking out?"

Them: "At the other Highway 21 bridge."

From the confluence with Cedar Creek, it is about 50 miles to the Highway 21 bridge near Washington State Park!

Me:  "How long do you plan to take?"

Them:  "We're doing an overnight, thought we'd get there late tomorrow afternoon.  We looked at it on the Missouri Highway Map, it didn't look very far."

I explained the facts of life to them, told them it was a float that should take 5-6 days to do, and the river didn't get big enough to really float it with a loaded canoe this time of year for 30 miles.  I offered to take them back up to get their vehicle.  But I don't think they believed me.  They continued downriver, and I often wonder what finally happened to them.

[chad 417]

May still be going

 

[jdmidwest]

The best ones are the ones you meet paddling back up stream.

[snagged in outlet 3]

10 hours ago, jdmidwest said:

White Claw??

Was heading to our Private Creek this afternoon to cool off after working bees and met a car on our 1/4 mile private road.  They said they were meeting someone there to swim.  Seems like the idiot new neighbor has been inviting all to trespass against us.  Grandkid made short work of them with the whistling bottle rockets.  He aimed for the cars.

I work all week with the public, I don't need it on my privates.

It’s a popular hard seltzer drink kids are into.  One boat ramp. 20 kids putting on sunscreen and deciding who is riding with whom while 4 trailers wait to put in or takeout.  I finally said, “you pilgrims gonna launch them rafts or whistle Dixie?”😆

it was hot yesterday and I was ready to go.