The Elk River Canoe Trip

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My granddad called the Elk River the Cowskin River, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out the Elk River the Mickey Mouse Gang had planned a canoe trip down was the same river I had fished in as a boy with my granddad on my trips to Sulphur Springs, Arkansas. Here’s the story. (Please note the people in the photos used in the text are not of the Mickey Mouse Gang. They are for illustrative purposes only.)

 

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The Elk River Canoe Trip

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Along about the summer of 1988, the Mickey Mouse Gang were running together and we decided to take a canoe trip down the Elk River near Noel, Missouri. At that time, Bill & Pam, Dale & Sandy, John & Sue, Joe & Mildred, and Paul & Jean were the mousers that took the trip. My daughters, Kristi & Tamara, Joes adopted sons Mat and Russell, and Dales sister also made the trip as guest mousers. As I recall we drove over to Pineville, Missouri, and camped out at one of the camp grounds along the Elk River near Pineville on Friday night. On Saturday morning, we headed up River to the canoe rental outfit where we had our reservation. After we had our safety orientation, we got our life preservers and canoes and headed down River to begin our twelve mile canoe trip. Pam and I got one canoe and Kristi and Tamara got their own canoe. We brought a styrofoam cooler with bottled water and I brought my fishing pole.

 

A beautiful area along the 12 mile canoe trip we took on the Elk River, near Noel. Missouri. 

 

 

The beginning location of a long trip down the Elk River by an enthusiastic Micky Mouse Gang on a Saturday morning.
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Not too long after we got started, we ran under some low hanging limbs and Pam shifted that butt of hers to miss the limb and the canoe went right over. Fortunately, our styrofoam cooler floated. We righted ourselves and I explained to Pam not to shift that weight so quickly and we did good the rest of the trip. We weren’t the only ones to go over on that trip, so I didn’t feel so bad. The girls were natural born canoers and they had no trouble at all. If fact they were having a ball racing with Mat and Russell.

 

 

Damn it Pam, you can’t shift your weight in the canoe that fast, next time let the branch hit you in the head.

 

 

 

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The scenery along the Elk River was just awesome. I really hadn’t expected the beautiful sights we experienced that day. About half way down the river, we parked the canoe near a deep blue hole and I fished with a spinner for about a half an hour. I caught several small mouth bass which I immediately released. At that time. the river area along our trip was pristine and extremely clean which really made the river run a pleasure. The girls found a good swimming hole with a big rock they could dive off of and they had a wonderful day also.

 

The scenery along the trip downstream was really awesome. We all loved being out in natures wonders on a Saturday morning.

 

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The Micky Mouse Gang was spread out for about a mile along that river. Occasionally we would pass some of them and then later some of them would pass us. Overall we had a wonderful time running that River even though we all got sunburned pretty bad. We travelled past Noel. Missouri, and then went through some very light rapids which were quite fun before reaching our 12 mile exit the River point.

 

 

One of the scenes as we passed by Noel, Missouri on our trip down the Elk River.

The light rapids we encountered on the tail end of our lovey day on the Elk River.

 

 

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There was a van at the exit point that picked us all up and hauled us back to our cars. We all had dinner together in Pineville looking like baked lobsters and then headed for home after another very fun weekend trip with the Mickey Mouse Gang. What fun we had together.

 

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Thanks for reading The Elk River Canoe Trip.
Bill