Arkansas River - July 4, 2003
By Chris Collins
Fourteen enjoyed Friday’s activities and we welcomed two new KCA memberships; Virginia Davis a friend of Linda Lyne, and Ben & Kacy Postlethwait. Charles Benjamin was initiated into kayaking by soloing from the back seat in Bill’s tandem Ole Yeller. Needless to say the bow was light and steering was difficult. Other participants included Linda Lyne, Bill & Yvonne Cather, David Browne, Chris Collins, Lyle Kaufmann, Russell & Carolyn Warnkey, Ray Cowin and his 6-year-old grandson Tyler. Ray and Tyler camped Thursday night and helped with the shuttle on Friday morning. Thanks a bunch Ray from all of us.
When I originally planned the trip I asked Bill Cather if we could use his sandbar. I was thinking it would be a great place to plan an overnighter on the river. He immediately opened his property and home to us. To top that off, he had air conditioning either installed or repaired the day before the holiday began. Bill many thanks to you and Yvonne from all of us for your hospitality.
For the Friday morning float we launched about a mile north of the Mulvane Bridge and floated to Bill’s sandbar. That made the float 5.12 miles and it lasted about 2:45. I think everyone got stuck a few times. In general we all had fun and looked forward to the evening float.
For the Friday evening float we launched from Bill’s sandbar at 6:10 PM with intentions of floating to the Belle Plaine Road Bridge for a distance of 5.90 miles and an estimated 3:00 hours. This would let us take-out with some daylight to spare and we could enjoy the cool evening on the river. Our speed was grossly over estimated and nowhere near that of the morning trip. For starters we had two tandem kayaks with a deep draft that caused them to get stuck frequently. Bill and I both ran sweep to help them. It must have taken an hour to make the first mile. When we reached a point just past the end of Bill’s property we helped the two tandem kayaks and their pilots to exit the river. Bill hiked back to the cabin to get his truck and then hauled them back to camp. They were all most gracious that they did not have to continue towing their boats.
The four remaining boats piloted by Lyle Kaufmann, Charles Benjamin, Yvonne and myself continued to the original take-out at the bridge on the Belle Plaine Road. I think we should have exited with the rest of the group but Lyle and Charles were already too far down river to communicate this idea with them.
Bill had provided Charles with a real kayak for the evening trip and he did much better. As far as I know, Yvonne was the only one to be bucked off her boat and she did provide some entertainment for the rest of us. In all fairness, she did as well as anyone could have done in trying to keep her whitewater kayak up with three touring kayaks. She IS a superior paddler. I stayed back with Yvonne and tried to keep Charles and Lyle in sight.
We all got stuck many times. The Derby gage height was only 2.24 feet as compared to 5.26 feet for the May 17 KCA Rendezvous trip. We also discovered a rocky bottomed Arkansas River a couple of miles north of the take-out that change the rules for finding the channel. We finally caught up with Lyle and Charles at the take-out just as night was approaching and it was almost too dark to see. The take-out was at the same place we took out on the second day of the KCA Rendezvous only this time instead of an eddy on river left we found a sandbar that covered about half of the river.
By the end of the day, two floats trips and many groundings later Charles Benjamin was the only one who wanted to do a Saturday morning float. I think Charles is now hooked on kayaking. He should be ecstatic when he experiences cool weather and real water. Charles was however out-voted for a Saturday float trip and the paddle party and campfire activities were moved to Bill’s cool cabin where many topics were discussed. I discovered my 3-season tent does not include air conditioning for July and August. No raindrops fell on our heads and the river level continued to drop.
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