I’m not generally a believer of Biblical stories, but the rains of the last few days have at least gotten me to consider the possibility of Noah and his Ark (as long as you avoid all logical thought, like where would all the water go that could flood the planet 28,000’ deep and how did he get animals from all over the world since evolution is not a possibility in the story). I received a call from Brad that he was at our house in Cape Girardeau. I thought I had left the garage door open for him but went out the kitchen door to open it up. It was open but no Brad. I walked out to the drive and then I understood—Brad drives a Miata which is low to the ground and light weight. He had made the right decision to not attempt entering the drive since it was a raging river almost up to the neighbor’s house. I walked along the upper edge of the drive and got in his car so we could go eat while the waters subsided.
Pam had to work all day Thursday, so we had a few hours to kill until she got off. I showed him the booming metropolis of Cape Girardeau and then we still had a few hours to kill except now we were depressed. We had a late lunch at Broussards before checking if the waters were down enough for him to get in our drive. Water was still on the drive so we got out and carried the Miata into the garage so we could unload it. We went over the plans for the weekend and got all of the gear and food loaded into out packs while we were waiting for Pam. When she finally decided she had spent enough time at work for appearances, she came home so we could eat, build a fire on the deck and drink some wine before bed.
Reluctantly, we took Brad to our favorite and only coffee shop in Cape: Cup-n-Cork. Brad is kind of a coffee, cigar, wine, and food snob so I was expecting him to slam the place. He ordered an expresso and asked Max if he could get that in a demitasse. Max is the son of the owners, works on breaks from college, and is not a barista. Fortunately, Tina was there and helped him out but the answer was no. Brad was very generous afterwards and didn’t slam them knowing that they were my friends and I liked going there. I have avoided bringing him into my coffee inner-circle in the past.
We had about a 6 hour drive and planned to meet my brother-in-law (let’s just call him brother because he is—no, I’m not from Kentucky, but Brad is) and his friend in Harrison, Arkansas for an early supper before hiking into the woods for the night. The plan is to hike in a few miles, set up a base camp, and day hike out from there. We’ve never been to the Buffalo River so we didn’t know exactly what to expect.
It rained the entire drive. We stopped at another coffee shop in Poplar Bluff to try and wake up. We decided to be adventurous and take the southern route out of MO from there. We were in deep southern Missouri near the Arkansas border when we came up to a truck jackknifed in the road. I got out to talk to them to see what the prognosis was and their response was (accompanied by banjo music) “What the hell difference does it make how long it’s gonna take? The river’s out and you ain’t going no further on this road.” I thought I heard pig squealing so I got back in the car, turned around, and backtracked up to road with a higher bridge. This detour only added another hour to the rainy drive.
By the time we met up with George and Karen, we were only 2 hours late. They had found the Brick Oven Pizza Company which had a nice selection of beer so they were fine. We had printed out rough maps that we could find on the internet and looked over possible routes. We decided to just drive down towards Ponca and find the trail head for the Center Point Trail.
It was about another hour drive to the trail head parking lot. We got there without incident. I did bring a dining fly and lots of alcohol since we weren’t really going to be hiking much. Miraculously, the rain had stopped just before we got into Harrison and now we were having a pleasant evening with clear skies and sunshine. We still had another 3 hours of sunlight so things were looking good.
The Center Point Trail is a multiuse trail which used to be an old road when the area was occupied. Now it’s a horse and hiking trail. Even though it had stopped raining, it was a muddy mess on the trail. There were several areas where we had to get off of the trail and lower ourselves down from tree to tree in the steepest and muddiest sections. All in all, it wasn’t a bad walk. What made it worse was all the extra gear, food, and alcohol we were carrying.
We set up camp at the junction of the Goat Trail. The area is managed by the NPS but there’s very little info on regulations. It seems pretty much a free-for-all. I talked Brad and Karen into walking out and seeing the Goat Trail with me. This is the face of Big Bluff which is the highest bluff on the Buffalo River. The trail was originally made as a shortcut for the local kids to get to the school house. The kids in the day had much bigger balls all around than we do. I got them to go through the opening in the rock to get out on the ledge, but that was about as far as they would go. I walked another 50’ or so but didn’t want to go on by myself.
George and Pam had finished setting up camp and collected wood for a fire. There was a nice campfire area with logs to sit on, but George, Pam, and I had brought camp chairs as well. While we were getting the fire going, a guy walked in carrying a tent on his shoulder and through it down on the ground across from our camp. He was out for the night with his son and friend. The boys eventually scrambled in and said they wanted to keep going—they were carrying a couple of pillowcases stuffed with gear. They didn’t seem the most organized group I’ve seen but at least they were out. About 10 minutes later they came back and agreed to camp with their dad.
We had a nice campfire and some wine. Brad had a cigar and some bourbon. We sat around talking for a while before letting the fire die down. Brad and I were the last ones up. It’s usually just Pam and me in a tent and maybe one other tent. Here, we had 4 tents set up and three of them were lit up with flashlights while they were getting ready for bed.
