Missouri Float Trip

Canoes on the Current River in Shannon County, Missouri.

The Passengers went to Missouri in July because J's brother got married in Columbia. After the celebrations we headed south into the Ozarks for some outdoor recreation. Southern Missouri is a beautiful karst landscape dominated by forested bluffs, riddled with caves, and laced with spring-fed streams. It's a great place for gentle canoe trips, and there are few better streams than the Current River, part of the protected Ozark National Scenic Riverways.

The Current River in the morning.

For weeks temperatures have been unbearable in the Midwest with routine highs around 104 F/40 C during our visit. Fortunately, our river was fed by springs with water temperatures below 70 F. A quick dip in the water always kept us cool during a ten-mile float downstream. There are more details and pictures after the jump.

Cave Spring along the Current River offers enough headroom for canoes to enter.

In Missouri a lazy day in the canoe is called a float trip, and its a great way to get some fresh air without too much exertion. The river travels slowly and poses little threat to inexperienced oarsmen plus numerous business in the area will not only rent canoes but also drive day trippers down to the water and retrieve them at the end of the day. It's an outing best done with a cooler full of beer and sandwiches.

Our canoe parked on a gravel bar along the Current River. Next job: open the cooler and make lunch.

On our float trip we started around 9:00 am in order to finish before the worst heat of the day. We were rewarded with glassy water and innumerable kingfishers making their morning hunt. Other wildlife sightings included red-eared sliders, great blue herons, and turkey vultures plus plenty of fish darting underneath the canoe. Quiet weekdays are best if you want to drift by silently and glimpse the relatively undisturbed life of the river.