The Flip Side

Neighbor gets Buffalo paddlers back on road

Pair laughs about trip, now it’s over

The Buffalo River flows fast and full July 10 near the Steel Creek access.
The Buffalo River flows fast and full July 10 near the Steel Creek access.

Sometimes just getting to the water is the biggest challenge of a trip to the Buffalo National River.

Rex McGill of Fayetteville will testify it’s true during an attempt trip to float the Buffalo in the Mount Hersey area. Attempt is the operative word here. Throw in a little care trouble and the plot thickens, as you’ll soon read. Things went so haywire that McGill sat down later and wrote an essay about the trip. He sent us a copy.

McGill’s goal several Sundays ago was for he and his float buddy, Kevin, to canoe a section of the Buffalo they’d never paddled. Things got crazy for the two on a gravel road on the way to their putin spot.

“About halfway up Mount Hersey road the truck made that sound that goes along with getting a flat. We gathered ourselves at the front of the truck and couldn’t believe our eyes. We didn’t have one flat, but two. Here we are in one of the most remote sections of Arkansas and Kevin tells me he only has one spare,” McGill writes.

McGill’s first thought was to catch a ride with someone else heading to the river so he could get his car that he’d left at the take-out at Mount Hersey.

“A car came up the road in our direction, a man and woman in an SUV. I waved them over and explained our dilemma. ‘Never seen two flat tires before.’

“The man, named Matthew, asked his wife to drive back to their house so Matthew could get his truck and try to help us. Matthew thought he might be able to put a plug in one of the tires and get us up the road.

“Matthew showed up in his truck in about five minutes. We couldn’t believe he had the same truck as Kevin’s. We proceeded to replace both front tires with Kevin and Matthew’s spares. We had to take out the fishing rods to get to the jack and thought it would be a good idea to put them in the truck bed while we worked.

“Turned out not to be such a good idea when Kevin tossed one of the wheels right on top of all three of our rods. Only one rod broke so we felt blessed. We went to Mount Hersey to get my car, then went back to Matthew’s so he could fix our tire and we could return his spare.

“When we returned, Matthew had the tire fixed. His house is on a hillside. When Matthew rolled the tire down a couple of steps to Kevin, it picked up speed and got away from him. We watched it roll down the hill about 200 feet before it hit a tree and stopped momentarily. The tire wobbled, picked up steam again and away it went, out of sight down the mountain.”

“Matthew, in his infinite wisdom, said, ‘Probably a good idea for me to go get that on my four-wheeler.’ He was back in no time with our tire.”

“Within 45 minutes we were back on the road from having two flat tires. Who would have thought that was possible? We offered to give Matthew $40 for his trouble, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He was our hero on this day.”

“We didn’t get to float. Heading into Jasper, my thought was there was only one way to salvage this day. That was a chicken-fried steak at the Ozark Cafe. Delicious.

“Incredible things happen when you go to the Buffalo River. I can’t wait to go back. Next time we’ll just put in at Ponca.

Flip Putthoff can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWAFlip

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