Paddledate 12.20.97

The radar shows lots and lots of rain in Texas and Oklahoma. All forecasts show for the rain to inundate Arkansas during the night. Plans are made to check levels early the next morning for assault on the river. Most likely the Cossatot currently at 2.7 ft. Some are so sure that they went down to camp and wait.

Paddledate 12.21.97

Arose around 5 am. Checked the Weather Channel. Do my dismay, the rain had dissipated as it entered the State once again. Called the Tot, 2.87 ft. Checked the level at 5:30am 2.91 ft, oooh some rise! Checked at 6:00am, 2.90 ft. Damn! Disgusted, I didn't even call anyone, we all knew it we'd been skunked by the weathermen again, I went back to bed.

Then the phone rang around 6:30am. It Cowper who says, "I know what I'm doing today." I grumpily replied "Sleeping in?"

"I'm going to the Glover, it was running 4000 CFS yesterday, this is our chance to check it out when the TOT isn't running." I said "Ok it beats siting at home, I'll check with Nate and meet you at the commuter lot." Nate checked the gauge and said it was up to 7000 CFS and was in for the ride. Diane bowed out of the long drive, but Greg Rhinehart(sp?) was in. We all loaded into the Explorer with Debbie as shuttle driver (Thank-you!) and headed out around 8:00 am.

As we passed through the Glenwood and Dierks area. We checked the TOT again, 3.24 ft. Decided that is was still low enough to pass. At least the others didn’t get totally skunked. Got to DeQueen around 10:00 am and drove West for another hour. All we had for maps was a AAA US Atlas and the Texas/Oklahoma/Arkansas Whitewater guide book that Nate had, and it was written many years ago for only the major streams and only had sketches for maps. Around 11:30 am we arrived at the put-in for the "better section" of the Glover as described in the book.

The river was running big, kinda looked like the Big Piney at 6 or 7 feet or so, but much wider, just starting to exit the banks. This is where a low water bridge crosses and today it was a killer hydraulic. Some locals in a jacked-up 4x4 truck on the other side thought hard about trying to cross. Even drove the front wheels into the water before wising up. We let out a big sigh of relief because we really didn't want to unload boats and retrieve their bodies from the river.

We decided to drive upstream, without a decent map, to see if there was anything up there. With that much water in the river, I said "There has to be a creek or something waiting for us." We drove 8-10 miles before the roads split in multiple directions and we were unable to tell the main road from the side roads. We decided to take a closer look at the two little bitty teeny tiny creeks that we had just conveniently crossed. Upon further inspection, they both were flowing in the direction of the Glover and were upstream of the "put-in" we had just left and both had enough water to float a boat! So we picked the one that appeared to have the most water, and of course the higher elevation, and said "PUT-IN HERE!" Time 1:00pm. It was the crack of noon somewhere, so we could launch.

Now Cowper was in the RPM, Nate in Cowper's Acrobat 270, me in the Kinetic and Greg in his brand new Stubby. We were expecting class II play run and not a creek run when we left LR but what the heck, rodeo boats will do!

The first move was to boof a log into the culvert as the creek/ditch crossed under the road. Then we followed the creek into the woods as Debbie drove shuttle (Thank-you again!). The first 0.25 to 0.5 mile was full fledged brush bashing. Current but not any significant drops, but things got interesting soon. The gradient picked up and the current followed suit. Dodging rocks, limbs and the each other, we encountered several blind drops and horizon lines, which were prudently scouted. All drops were run with varying degrees of success. Only had to portage around 1 tree. All in all, the creek felt like it was ~3+/- miles long and very technical. It was challenging but not extremely difficult. The biggest single drop was 10 to 15 feet tall steep drop down a pile of rocks. There were numerous 5-6 ft drops and several complex drops. Solid class III and IV, class V if you count all the limbs poking at you're eyes.

We finally reached the Glover around 2:45pm and proceeded downstream.

Shortly we encountered two or three good rapids with some Western sized waves. Great surfin'! But then it turned flat! The current was there but it still felt like flat water and the cold wind has started howling, upstream of course. After portaging a couple of low water bridges, we finally arrived at the "put-in", our take-out around 4:30pm. Cowper had contemplated running the section we originally came for, but decided that the 30 minutes of daylight left was not enough for 9 miles of flat water, even if there were 2 or 3 rapids down there.

We most likely had just completed a first decent of the creek that we didn't know the name of. We didn’t get to check out the "better section" of the Glover, but we weren’t complaining. So many runs, so little time.

Made it to Don Juan's in Hot Springs by 7:30pm for the traditional after paddle meal and made it to bed by 11:00pm. A good day had by all, and we know where to go next time the same weather pattern hits. There are several take-outs shortly after the creek enters the Glover so we will by-pass the flat water next time.

We still can’t believe the quality of the creek we caught on a whim and a hunch. Where did our luck come from? I didn’t deserve such a great run considering the disappointment and anger I felt early this morning. Maybe this El Nino thing ain’t such a bad thing after all.

(We conducted map research after the trip and discovered the name, approximate gradient and length of the creek. Rocky Creek, ~3.5 miles, ~100 ft/mile average, ~140 ft mile maximum.) Check it out!