Family-Outdoors

We left our home 50 miles West of St. Louis on a Tuesday afternoon and arrived at Greer Crossing Campground that evening. The route to the area is one of the more scenic drives you can take in Missouri , taking us through the Ozark National Scenic Riverways and miles and miles of Mark Twain National Forest , as well as thousands of acres of state Conservation lands. It really hit me as to how fortunate we are in Missouri to have so many acres of public land in so beautiful and area. We set up camp on Tuesday evening, and my two boys did a little fishing and then swimming. Let me tell you, that water was envigorating, as I found over the next few days as we made our trip. The river is fed from a steady diet of cold spring inflows, but perhaps the coolest section is there at Greer Crossing. We got up the next morning and shuttled vehicles so that the truck would be there when we arrived at Riverton in a few days where our float would end. We got on the river mid-morning and were on...

Here in a few days, we are headed on a float trip to one of Missouri's less traveled streams...so I am not talking about the Meramec or Current Rivers. There will be a party of five in a 12 foot jon boat and a 14' canoe. We are also bringing an inflatable kayak. That's about all the details I will give right now about the actual trip logistics, but I'll report all the happenings after we return. What I will say is that I built a pretty cool rack to carry our canoe and jon boat down to the river. Since I cannot weld and am way too cheap to buy a ready made rack, it is built from wood. I will include some pics after our trip is over. I constantly am given grief by my wife and kids about the hoosier contraptions I build for these types of trips. Several years ago, we took a trip to Montana, Wyoming, and a few other places out West. I built the most outrageous contraption to stow out gear in my crew cab Chevy S-10. My kids would not be seen in it in our home town, but admit...