Will Meadows and his friends didn’t think a little rain could keep them from canoeing the Buffalo River during spring break.
The University of Lawrence, Wis., students are members of their school’s outdoor recreation club and are experienced paddlers.
But as one day of rain turned into four days of downpour, even Meadows knew the group had reached its limit.
“We got completely flooded out,” he said. “I think you would have to be an idiot if you put a canoe in the river right now.”
While floaters can still strike out independently, rental services aren’t giving out canoes or kayaks on the Buffalo, Mulberry or Elk rivers.
At A Glance
Water Level Check
For information on water levels on specific portions of a river, call your preferred outfitter, or check gauge readings form the U.S. Geological Survey at waterdata.usgs.gov/ar/nwis/rt.
Source: Staff Report
“The river is probably done rising, but it’s over flood stage right now from Ponca to the bottom,” said Caven Clark of the Buffalo National River office in Harrison. “At anything above flood stage, our concessionaires aren’t allowed to rent out boats.”
The National Forest Service closed many of the Mulberry River access points above Turner Bend as the river rose, said Mary Davidson of the Turner Bend Store.
“We don’t rent boats at anything above 4 feet, and the river’s running at 7.5 now,” she said Friday morning. “It could be several days before the level drops enough to float safely.”
The weather contributed to one person having to be rescued Friday in the Buffalo River area. A boy from Little Rock apparently slipped off a bluff while exploring in Lost Valley, falling about 15 feet into a creek. Rescuers brought the boy to a waiting air ambulance, and he was flown to Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville. His name, age and condition were unavailable Friday evening.
On the Elk River near Pineville, Mo., Steve Higinbotham specifically drove from Broken Arrow, Okla., to give son Donnie, 13, his first high-water experience.
“We came for the rapids and the obstacles, but the water’s so high right now, it’s flatter than we want,” he said. “We hope it will drop a foot or two this weekend and give us better whitewater.”
Those looking for fish instead of rapids were crammed into a three-mile stretch of the Norfork River near Mountain Home on Friday.
“The White is too muddy. It might clear up by Sunday, but that’s best-case optimism,” said Steve Hudgens of Rose’s Trout Dock in Norfork. “It’s only a couple miles up the Norfork to the dam, so that river’s not as full of runoff and debris. That’s where everybody headed this morning.”
Joe Sellers, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said canoeists should be cautious about choosing the right waterway.
“Some basins may not have been as hard hit as others,” he said. “The swath of the heaviest rains were in the far northwest corner of Arkansas and the southwest corner of Oklahoma. The Illinois River is not advisable.”
According to the National Weather Service, Fayetteville received 3.7 inches of rain during the past week.
Meadows said he and his friends decided to abandon their original idea in exchange for plan B, heading to Lake Leatherwood near Eureka Springs.
“The lakes are fine right now,” he said. “We’re pretty pumped about it.”
Beaver Lake rose 5 feet this week, said Alan Bland, a ranger with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The 57-degree lake is still too cold for waterskiing, and muddied enough to dampen fishing for several days, Bland said.
“What’s important for fishermen to note is that the storms carried a lot of debris and limbs into the lake,” he said. “It’ll be dangerous for two or three weeks until that debris gets caught somewhere or gets waterlogged enough to sink.”
The rain didn’t discourage campers along the lakeshore.
“The lake took in all the water just fine, and we’ve had some hardy campers who stuck it out,” Bland said. “I’m looking at probably 50 of the 75 campers at Horseshoe Bend who haven’t let the weather run them out.”
Ian Gould and his three friends encountered similar weather conditions during a camping trip to Devil’s Den State Park.
The high school students, from Broken Arrow, Okla., planned their trip two weeks ago and were determined not to waste their deposit money.
“It ended up dumping on us,” Gould said. “A quarter-mile hike ended up being nine-tenths of a mile. We got really wet.”
The group spent Friday afternoon fishing in Lee Creek, but they hadn’t caught anything as of noon.
Monte Fuller, Devil’s Den State Park superintendent, said some campers canceled their plans to visit the park, while others cut their trips short.
Those who stayed, he said, managed to hike between rain showers.
As the wet weather finally let up Friday, Fuller said more visitors began to arrive at the park.
“We have a normal crowd here today,” he said. “Our campgrounds are fully booked.”
Despite the reduced risk of flooding, Fuller said park rangers and campground employees remained on alert Friday.
“There’s always a danger of flooding depending on the amount of rain in one area,” he said. “We have a flash flooding warning system where we physically monitor the creek ourselves. We did have a couple people move their vehicles to higher ground earlier this week as a precaution.”
Even rainfall far from a put-in or access point can dramatically change river levels quickly, Clark said.
“Absolutely check in with your outfitter before you go,” he said.
Sellers said the rest of the weekend should be optimal for other outdoor activities.
“We’ll start to dry out a little bit, but then the rain may creep back in early next week,” Sellers said. “The rest of spring break should be sunny with increasing temperatures.”