Friday December 18, 2020:
Mike Oldani and Dan Staggenborg, met at Scott’s Ford 7:45 am to drop off a pick up car. The plan was for a very late fall float and scouting trip of the Meramec river.
Early Temperature: 27 degrees.
Drove 35 mins via KK thru downtown St. James from Scotts Ford, past Meramec Spring park entrance to hwy 8 bridge access put in point.
There is a newly constructed bridge at Scotts Ford, but the road on the opposite side (at Outdoor Adventures) is closed since it is not yet complete. When the bridge and road are opened the trip to hwy 8 access will be considerably quicker.
The guys spent over 90 minutes unpacking, setting up, rigging and loading our inflatable NRS Star Pike kayaks. This took much longer than expected since Dan was new to the process, and this was Mike’s maiden voyage in his kayak. Next time will be quicker as we know what to expect.
The intrepid floaters pushed off departing the Hwy 8 access At 9:50 am. The air temp was chilly but the guys were dressed for it. We each brought an extra set of clothes to keep dry in the dreaded event that we got wet.
Once afloat, Mike O took to his new inflatable kayak right away. He was a little apprehensive at first due to a prior summer canoe flip. He soon got over that and was “shooting” rapids on his own without a hitch.
We did not fish but we did some cool scouting and found a lot a very nice looking “fishable” water including below Maramec Spring park, Cardiac Hill and Suicide Hill to mention a few.
As we floated just below Maramec Spring park, about 3/4 way along the float, we encountered 3 different fishermen. None of them admitted to catching many fish. Funny thing: about 50 yards down from the last guy we could see a large number of fish. Undoubtedly we spooked the fish as we floated over them. So the lesson is to have some places scouted out and stop upriver.
Those 3 were the only people we saw the entire trip, an advantage of a cold weather trip.
I marked several spots on my mapping App: OnX OffRoad, so we’ll know how to find them again.
Although we brought fishing gear along we never did end up fishing due to so many unknowns, especially the short daylight (3rd shortest day of the year) and not knowing how long the float would take. (Now we know)
Guys might say that having the opportunity, and not fishing may have seemed a shame but the float being so enjoyable on a cool, crisp day made up for it.
Several memorable sights along the way: a bald eagle appeared to fly ahead of us along the River about a half dozen times. The majestic bird ? would wait until we got close enough to attempt a picture. Once we unpacked the phone camera, it would fly ahead before we could get a good shot. It seemed to be saying “I’m not giving it up so easily. You’ll just have to keep this scene in your mind…”. A couple miles downstream from our first encounter, we saw its nest in a tree 40 yards off the river.
At another spot an 8 point buck bounded out of the woods and calmly walked the knee deep water to cross the stream in front of us. We were within 25-30 yards of him so we got a great view (and again no picture)
Environmental factors:
Skies were cloudy and gratefully no rain. The Dec 18 flow of the Meramec was 1.72 gage ht; 340 cfs discharge; a bit low.
We each only scraped a couple times and had to get out and drag the kayaks only once at a wide shallow stretch.
Another factor which could have been a concern was the wind. Only on 2 occasions was there a 10-15 mph wind in our face with slack water, once just below Deer Creek. This required roughly 5 minutes of paddling to keep moving. Good exercise until the current picked up again.
The entire 8.9 mile float took 3 hours 45 minutes with a 15 minute stop for lunch but no fishing stops. Temperature at 1:35 pm take out at Scott’s Ford was 47 degrees.
Another 35 minute trip back to the drop off car to pack up for the trip back home.
As a scouting trip, to get our feet wet, the trip was a success, setting the stage for future FATC trips. Plenty of lessons learned.
Floating the river in a kayak gives one an appreciation for watching/understanding the current and seeing the likely holding places from a different perspective. Next trip we’ll bring more guys along, especially once warmer weather returns.
Any day on the water spending time being in nature’s beauty, is a great one!
