Canoeists to the rescue on Arkansas' Eleven Point River!
Class I can be hard on tubers!!
Posted to Ozark kayak and Canoe by Mandy Holliday on FB
My best friend, my daughter and I had a fabulous weekend camping at Richards canoe rental this past weekend. They are really friendly and accommodating! We rented tubes to float to Turner Mill. Richard’s shuttled us to near Boomhole access point on the Eleven Point River. Eleven Point is absolutely gorgeous and the float was glorious.
However, as a reminder, no matter what body of water you float, never underestimate the power of water!! We had one horrific experience under the Greer bridge. We got pulled into the rapids and the rope we had attached between my friend and daughter’s tube snapped. My daughter went flying towards the concrete bridge support. I got pulled a different direction than them. My friend managed to get off of her tube and get to my girl before she was pulled under the concrete support. Somehow my friend managed to keep my daughter on her tube while she pulled her against the current & rapids to a point where she could grab a fallen tree. She kept a hold of my girl and the tree while I fought against the current to get back to them. My feet kept getting caught in the moss and I’d get pulled back in the current.
Fortunately, a group of canoeists that we had talked with a couple times up to that point came by. Thank God they weren’t afraid to help me get to my girls! I finally managed to get to my daughter’s tube and pull her over the tree and send her to one of the canoeists that had waded into the freezing stream to help. After three additional passes, my daughter was safely on the dry ground. My friend was losing grip and thought she could let go and go under the tree to the other side. She didn’t realize the amount of moss that would have pulled her under. Fortunately together she and I were able to get her around the tree and together made it to the land with my daughter. The canoeists stayed with us for longer than they needed to to make sure we were all ok. They offered snacks, drinks and comfort. Once we convinced them we were ok, they continued on. We are so incredibly grateful for “river friends!” We finished the float and we do plan to do it again, only in kayaks next time!!
Thank you so much to our AR canoe friends!
