TEAM GREEN: Beech & Richland!

Well, I dusted off the playboat a little prematurely I guess. In fact, we just wrapped up one more fine weekend of creeking in the Ozark Mountains. With the perfect timing of the rain event Saturday morning, it turned out to be one sweet day for some Ozark creeking! Team Green rallied to the Ozark Mountains hoping to catch a run on something special. We ended up on Beech Creek, an uber-classic tributary of the Buffalo River. Beech is a long day of class 4-4+ creeking (when phat) and is typically hard to catch with phatty flows. It is the classic Ozark Creek in my opinion. My reasons for this statement are simple, the scenery is gorgeous, the run is quite long, and there are more quality class 4 drops on Beech than any other creek I can think of in the Ozarks! Our group consisted of Don, Shelby, Lazer, Steve, Pat, Riley, Kyle, Tracy, Amy, and myself. I knew we had a good level when Don swam on the 1st drop and hiked out! Shelby was right, it was going to be huge indeed! After the initial incident we had a couple of sketchy situations, but for the most part everyone did great. It was Amy's 1st Beech run and apparently she has now joined Tracy and Jonna as one of only three female boaters to run Beech (according to Shelby aka the Beech guru)! Props to Amy for becoming a "Beech Babe"! Enjoy the pics.

Steve in an unnamed rapid.

Kyle Styling Beech Ball!

Steve @ Beech Falls! below- Lazer @ Beech Falls!

Joe C @ Beech Falls! below- Tracy @ Beech Falls!

Amy @ Beech Falls! below-The gorgeous scenery of Beech Creek!

Sunday morning we awoke to maintenance rain and good levels on EFLB & Richland Creek. After considering a run down EFLB our crew ultimately decided to go for Richland, with hopes of hucking Long Devils Falls. Our crew consisted of Bryan, Tracy, Kyle, Amy, Nate, and myself. We arrived at the put in to see 5-6 inches of airspace under the bridge. We hustled downriver hoping to get in some hucks off of Long Devil's Falls! Upon arrival at the confluence we were stoked to see enough water to run the falls. Team Green joined forces with Ben and Jake, who were taking a break at the confluence, and carried up to the falls for a quick huckfest. Good lines were had by all. The gorge was booftastic and on our trip down, it started raining again! When we got to the takeout our crew was still fired up and wanted another lap, since the creek was on the rise again. On our 2nd lap (0 inches) we bombed down and rode the surge, finishing in under an hour! What a great weekend of boating in the Ozarks! Enjoy the pics.