Venture Campout to the
Mulberry River
Venture Crew members left the church at 5 pm on
Friday, April 30th for the four-hour drive to the Mulberry River in Arkansas
and some white water canoeing action.
After checking the Internet daily for most of a week
to see what the water level on the river would be like, everyone was looking forward to
fast water at with the river 2’8" above normal. Ideal white water conditions are
at 3½’ for intermediate skilled canoeists and since our crew has mixed skill levels
from beginner to advanced intermediate, the conditions promised to be near perfect.
We arrived at Camp Newell on the Mulberry River at 9
pm and set up camp in short order. Troop 168 has access to Camp Newell, a Last Frontier
Council wilderness camp years ago and now privately owned, and picked a small field
surrounded by pine, hickory and oak trees for its campsite.
Saturday morning, bright and early, Duds started
breakfast before rousting everyone by setting of Mr. Whitacre’s truck alarm. After
wolfing down huge helpings of Mountain Man casserole, the crew loaded into our vehicles
and drove up river about 16 miles to Byrd’s Canoe Camp. There, after waiting in line
and getting our gear, we climbed into their shuttle bus and drove up river for another 15
minutes before getting out at Wolf Den, a major drop off point for the northern stretch of
the Mulberry.
Troop 168’s Venture Patrol wasn’t the only
group getting on the river and it took close to another hour before we could drag the
canoes into the water. And, yes, the river was COLD.
For the first hour, the river seemed pretty tame with
nothing much more than Class I rapids and some in the Venture Crew were beginning to think
this would be a lot like the Elk River in Missouri with a little faster water. We crossed
a few Class II rapids a little further on and things got exciting.
One canoe didn’t dodge a tree in a middle of a
set of Class III rapids fast enough and they went over. Less than a mile downstream,
another turned on a set of rocks. Before the end of the day, every canoe had wiped out in
rapids, except for one. Jerry Coleman and Senior (Phillip W.) showed how skilled they are
with paddles in hand. That isn’t to say they didn’t get wet. We all know Mr.
Coleman well enough to know he wouldn’t let Senior get off the river dry and he
rolled their canoe a little past halfway through our trip.
After 3½ hours and 13 miles, we climbed out of our
canoes back at Bryd’s and, an hour later, were back at Camp Newell where everyone got
dry and into warm clothes. Some Scouts hiked the area, another fished and several lounged
like lizards on warm rocks while dinner cooked. Mr. Coleman loaded Troop 168’s famous
‘Texas brown spotted quail’ into three dutch ovens and stacked them up to simmer
for a couple hours. When done, the ‘quail’ meat fell off the bone when served
with mashed potatoes and green beans.
Once KP finished, we built a campfire and sat around
talking about the day’s run on the river. Although the river was packed with others
in canoes and kayaks, everyone agreed it was a blast. One by one, Scouts and Duds gave in
to fatigue and headed for bed. We broke camp the next morning and came home.
By Mark Luff,
Committee Chairman
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