I spent last weekend floating the Meramec River, actually kayaking the Meramec. I did a five mile trip on both Friday and Saturday and other than the turns in the river being the same, the two trips could not have been any more different. That’s one of the beautiful things about floating. It’s never the same twice—not even on back to back days.
Friday’s trip was peaceful and quiet with only a few people floating. We were able to enjoy nature on a one-on-one basis from the soaring bluffs to turtles sunning themselves on driftwood, and one of the largest bass I’ve ever seen! Although the day clouded, we had no rain. The cloud cover kept the humidity and heat down to a tolerable level and paddling was practically effortless.
Saturday’s trip was completely a different story from put-in to take-out. Saturdays are noted for parties and drinking which became apparent before we even got into the water. Drunken people who fall down before getting into their rafts should probably not go floating. In our case, two women in a raft nearly knocked us out as they barged into the area where we were about to take off from. For some reason, they felt a tremendous sense of urgency to get into that raft, so we stepped aside rather than get stepped on and let them have at it. In less than two minutes, they were floating backwards, and then stuck upon rocks.
Fortunately, we never saw them again for the rest of the day. They may have never left those rocks as they didn’t make many friends with their rude behavior.
Gravel bars were crowded with people and we dodged between rafts, canoes, and tubes. I was quite proud of my kayak maneuvering. At a couple of points, tubers attached themselves to me. I didn’t mind pulling them behind for a mile or so, but had to cut them off after my arms turned to rubber.
At the halfway mark, rain poured down. With no lightning in sight, I continued to paddle. The rain was warm and simply gave another facet to the float trip. I actually enjoy floating in the rain as long as there is no lightning or flash flooding.
Unfortunately, my kayak popped a seam and started taking on water. I made it, but was floating with an extra thirty gallons of water between the inner and outer layers of the kayak despite bailing water.
I’m already planning for the next local trip—a ten miler. My kayak will be repaired or replaced (still under warranty) before then, and I can only imagine what excitement and adventure those ten miles will hold. There’s no telling as every day on the river is different, and in my opinion—fun.
