Swan Creek Float

As you may have expected from my last post, we did a float trip this weekend that turned out to be pretty fun, uncomfortable (for some), and best of all memorable.

We floated Swan Creek here in southwest Missouri. We started in Garrison and ended in Forsyth which by the way of the river is about 18 miles. We got on the water around 3 p.m. Friday afternoon and made it about 6 miles that afternoon before we found a nice place to set up camp. We had heard of the possibility of strong thunderstorms that night, so we found a place to set the tent that was high enough we would have no chance of getting swamped if the river level came up quickly overnight. Much to our delight, we only received a few light showers and some pretty spectacular thunder and lightning.

Tyler and I sampled a few select dehydrated meals from Backpacker's Pantry and Mountain House. We both had the Beef Stroganoff for dinner which was suprisingly good. For dessert I went the simple route with a Mocha Mousse Pie while Tyler had the Hot Apple Cobbler which required a bit more work but turned out really good! For breakfast I had the Scrambled Eggs with Bacon and Tyler had the Huevos Rancheros. Now that I have told you all the things we had I'll review them all. The Beef Stroganoff tasted great and the best part was you just add hot water, stir and let it sit for 8-9 minutes. I had the single serving serving (14 oz), and Tyler had the 2 serving (20 oz) with was only 6 ounces more. I thought the single portion was plenty, but had I been REALLY hungry I would have wished for the larger size. As far as desserts go, the Mousse was pretty much like a thick pudding with a gram cracker topping. I think you were supposed to mix it in a bowl, but I just mixed it in the pouch. Tyler had to put his Apple Cobbler in a pan and cook it on the camp burner which was a little more work. For breakfast, the eggs and bacon were about as good as dehydrated scrambled eggs and bacon can be, but the best part is you can also cook them in the bag. Tyler's Huevos Rancheros had to be cooked on the stove in the pan. Again, if you're looking for something that can be cleaned up easily, make sure it can be cooked in the bag, that way you just throw away the bag and you don't have to wash your pot. I did get a chance to try out my new Katadyn Vario water filter I mentioned last week. I pumped around 4 litres of water through it and it worked great! Most of it was used for cooking but I did drink about half a liter and it tasted fine (still much like river water but fine).

Now that I'm done reviewing our cuisine I'll talk more about the float itself. No more than 2 minutes into our morning departure Daniel somehow managed to dump his kayak on a shallow set of rapids marking the first memorable part of the day. The next 20 minutes or so were spent ringing out his winter coat and backpack, emptying out his kayak and changing clothes. For the next 2 miles or so, Daniel was undoubtedly freezing as the water was no doubt in the 50's and the air wasn't much warmer. Then he dumped his kayak again, sending his kayak floating downstream upside down and loose items floating away. As Tyler and I quickly paddled to recover Daniel's belongings floating downstream, he stumbled on to a sandbar wet and freezing. Fortunately this was the last time Daniel would flip his kayak since he had now exhausted his own supply of dry clothes and was now tapping into my supply. The next 9 miles were pretty uneventful, but there were some very nice sets of rapids one after another. We did scrape on the shallow rapids quite a bit which made me wish for more rain the night before as the river could have used an extra several inches of water. If the river had another foot or two we would have been in store for a REALLY good ride! We pulled out of the water around 3 p.m. Saturday after putting in a little after 10 a.m. All in all, we were on the water around 6 1/2 to 7 hours so we would have averaged almost 3 mph.

I would probably only recommend this float to someone who has a kayak as you would probably be dragging a canoe on several sections. I have heard that the Swan is a really good ride after a good rain because there are some class III spots which would then be floatable in a canoe but just be prepared to get a little wet. To end this post, the absolute best part of the river was the water clarity which we were all impressed by.