Buffalo River adventure

 5/12/23

On Friday we embarked on our short adventurous journey, to the Buffalo river in the northern part of Arkansas. After driving for a few hours we arrived to the area. We crossed a beautiful creek and had only a couple of minutes left to go until we arrive. However, an unfortunate event occurred. We drove over a few not so big rocks and the car suddenly stopped working. Thankfully, we were really close to our destination so we could just walk over to our lodging. We stayed in a beautiful forest cottage with a hot tub outside. We went there as a big group of 3 families so each family stayed in their own cottage. Ours was named  "the Farmhouse", the interior was decorated in the same theme. The first evening me and all the kids played some poker and blackjack and we also checked out the jacuzzi.

5/13/23

This was the big day. We had breakfast and left around 10 am. The drive was around 1 hour and 15 minutes long. On the way there we saw the beautiful Ozark mountain range, after spending so much time in Wynne where you can see miles and miles ahead because it is so flat it was quite refreshing. The way it worked was that you drive to the beginning of the trail and leave your car there. Someone then drives it to the pick up spot and you can drive home right after you leave your canoe. It was supposed to take us around 5 hours but with all the stops it took us probably around 6. I remember that before my exchange when I found out my placement is Wynne I googled the most popular things in Arkansas and floating on the National Buffalo River was in the top 3 spots so I was really excited to actually experience it for myself! It is the first National river to be designated in the United States and is around 150 miles long.

It had rained for the few previous days so the river was moving pretty fast and the instructor told us not to underestimate the current. He said that 2 out of 3 canoes will flip over today which ended up being true. I was in a two person canoe with Evan a 15 year old guy. Everyone in our group got on their rafts or canoes and we began. At times it was very peaceful, however when we got to a turn it got quite intense. The views were incredible, you float in a river and all around you are massive stone walls reaching over 100 feet! We stopped multiple times to snack on fruit and hot dogs and to take a break from paddling because it was very exhausting. At times you had to paddle to get the canoe straight and after multiple hours of doing that your back starts to feel it. Our last break was at these cliffs that you can jump off of, so naturally I had to try it. At first I was a little scared but after checking the depth and seeing multiple people jump before me, I did it too. You had to swim over to the opposite bank and with the strong current it was quite challenging. After that you had to go in this little forest and climb over a few rocks and logs and suddenly you found yourself on top of a 7 meter drop to the water. I ended up jumping twice.

The final and most adrenaline filled part was still awaiting me and Evan though. Without knowing what is about to happen we got on our canoe and started paddling. After around 30 minutes we had a sharp right turn right in front of us. We picked up a lot of speed which turned out to be a huge mistake. We found ourselves hurling towards the bank where there was a bunch of sharp rocks and a tree. To avoid the big tree that leaned over the water we both instinctively leaned to the right - away from it and just as the both of us did that a big chunk of water got right in our canoe with just enough mass to change the center of gravity of our canoe and flip us over. In matter of seconds we lost our paddles, shoes, sunglasses and our food bag. Evan quickly grabbed the bag and I had to hunt down my shoes and the paddles. Our canoe was now moving way faster than we could swim so we couldn't just grab it, it was already 20 feet away. Since there was another quick turn incoming we couldn't risk losing the canoe and going in the sharp turn on our feet. That would've been too dangerous and we could've gotten hurt. So I told Evan to hold onto the paddles and the bag and I was going to catch the canoe. I started swimming and at first it looked like there wasn't enough time to catch up to it, I wasn't quick enough. So I found some hidden power locked away in me and I swam faster than ever before. I caught it just before it was going to get swept away by the current and dragged it to the bank just in front of the next turn. Evan swam over with all the things and now we had another problem, the canoe was too heavy just for us two to flip it over. So we started to scoop the water out with our shoes and hats and after a while we were able to flip it. After looking closely there was a huge dent in the bottom of the canoe so it seems we hit a rock and that tipped us over. We got on the boat, grabbed our paddles and now with PTSD headed into another fast part of the river we managed not to capsize again and it turned out the end was right in front of us. We took all the stuff off of the canoe and headed on the land. It felt very nice to be standing again and even nicer to realize how well we managed the unexpected situation that came up.

In the evening we grilled some meat, played poker and blackjack and all in all enjoyed the company. It was very refreshing getting on the river like that and I would definitely do it again some day. 

- Ondrej