Car Shuttle Part Of Ozark Canoeing Adventure

River floating may be the only pastime where you turn your trusty car or truck over to a total stranger then pay them good money to drive it.

Such is the nature of the car shuttle that's part of many an Ozark float trip adventure. If you float a river from point A and take out at point B, you'll need to be reunited with your vehicle if you want to go home.

There are a dozen ways to shuttle. Sometimes the logistics can confuse and amuse. Rarely do we run a float-trip story in Outdoors where someone doesn't e-mail, asking how we got back to the start after our trip. The answer can be different on every float. You can do your own shuttle or hire an outfitter.

The outfitter might have you start your float. Then, while you are on the river, someone will drive your car to the take-out so it'll be there waiting for you. Another vehicle follows along to take the driver back. All day you wonder, "Who's driving my car?"

When your float is through, there are clues to the answer. If the driver's seat is pushed all the way forward and the radio is tuned from NPR to the local pop station, the outfitter's teenage daughter probably shuttled your car. If the seat hasn't been moved but there's country on the radio, one of the male canoe wranglers was the likely driver.

The ride-along shuttle is easiest. Plus, you get to know your driver. We love to float Indian Creek in Southwest Missouri. When we do, someone from Indian Creek Campground hops in the car and rides along with us upstream to the put-in spot. After we unload the canoe and gear, our passenger drives the car back. We float back to the campground and the car is there at the river bank when our trip is over.

It's simple, quick and on the way you can ask about the fishing and river conditions.

On busy streams like the Elk River, you might start the trip right there at the outfitter's place and leave your car there. At the end you hop in the outfitter's van or bus. The driver takes floaters back to the outfitter every half-hour or so.

Over years of floating, every shuttle has gone smoothly. The only excitement came on a shuttle that involved hiking.

Years ago a buddy and I decided to hike the whole Ozark Highlands Trail in four trips. Back then the west end of the trail was at Lake Fort Smith State Park and the east end was at Woolum on the Buffalo River. The trail covered 165 miles.

For the first three legs of the trip, my buddy's wife dropped us off then picked us up a few days later when we finished our hike. On the final leg, from the little town of Pelsor to Woolum, we hired a shuttle.

The owner of the store in Pelsor said he could get one of the locals to ride in my pickup with us to Woolum, drop us off and drive the truck back. We'd hike back to Pelsor to the truck.

My buddy, me and a good old boy were all packed into the front seat. We bumped over miles of bad gravel roads deeper and deeper into the Ozark National Forest. When we came to a particular fork in the road, I asked the good old boy which way we should go.

"Heck, I don't know. I thought you knew the way."

We found Woolum by sheer dead reckoning. Our driver found his way back to Pelsor. We had a fine time on our hike and completed the Ozark Highlands Trail.

The trail is longer now. And since that last hike they've invented this thing called GPS.

Outdoors on 07/24/2014

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