Day 3 – Monday(Mt. Hersey to Woolum)

We woke up the next morning with the rain still coming down. I thought for sure that we were going to spend the whole day canoeing through a downpour. It finally stopped raining about 8am, and we were able to heat some water for more bad coffee and some oatmeal. I found that oatmeal is a really good food for camping. It’s very light, and fills you up.

After breakfast, we started the bucket brigade one last time. I had left my tripod in the truck, so I rested the camera on the cooler for this self portrait:

We started paddling down river (there wasn’t much moving water) and noticed some places where trees on the river banks had been struck by lightning. There were a few rapids, and a large group of college kids that had put in somewhere. Other than that, this section of the river was pretty boring – until about a mile from the Woolum takeout point.

I had noticed a place on the map called “The Nars” (short for The Narrows) and thought it referred to a narrow section of water. It actually refers to a narrow bluff/cliff that runs along the river. We were paddling along with some guys on their anual fishing trip when we came up to the Nars, and they mentioned that you can climb up to the top of the ridge.

Being the fearless group that we are, we decided to give it a go. It wasn’t that tough of a climb – just about 50 feet straight up. At least there were some trees and vines to hold on to. At the top was a ridge of rock about 3 feet wide on average. While we were up there, we heard what sounded like a vehicle. We looked down the other side of the ledge, and there was a road!

Later, I found out that the field we could see from the top of the Narrows was a Civil War battlefield – there weren’t a lot of battles fought in the Ozarks. Here’s a clipping from a history of Searcy County taken from “History and Architectural Heritage of Searcy County” By William D. Baker

Searcy County saw little formal combat during the war. A skirmish broke
out on New Year's Day, 1863, when a band of about 100 Federal irregulars
fired upon a scouting party of Confederate soldiers under Brigadier General
John S. Marmaduke near the Martha White ford of the Buffalo River. In the
ensuing combat, Federal casualties totaled 20 killed and 27 captured, while
only one Confederate soldier was lost.xlvii In December 1863, the 1st
Arkansas Cavalry under Captain John I. Worthington marched from Fayetteville
to reconnoiter Carroll, Marion, and Searcy counties. The Federals skirmished
almost continuously along Richland Creek with independent Confederate troops
under a Major Gunning and a Colonel Freeman, culminating in a major firefight
on New Year's Eve that ended in a draw. During the fight, Merrit Cash's house
was used as a Confederate hospital. The Confederates reported 25 dead
and 33 wounded, while the Federals lost six men, with less than ten
reported wounded.

The creek that runs into the Buffalo at our takeout point in Woolum is the Richland Creek mentioned in the history.

Around the bend from the Nars is a place called “Skull Bluff.” It looks like the water flowing around the bend has eroded caves into the base of the limestone. This was one of the most impressive features that I remember from the trip. Below are photos that show the profile view and a straight on view of Skull Bluff.

We made it from Skull Bluff to the Woolum takeout point in about an hour. We had to wait for about an hour and a half (if I remember correctly) on the guy from Gordon Motel Canoes to come pick us up. He was a pretty interesting feller.

Once back in Jasper, we rented room 14 for another night and went looking for a place to eat. Luckily, we ended up at the only place open on a Monday night before they closed (at 8pm). I think the place was called the Ozark Cafe. The food wasn’t that bad, but wasn’t that good either. We left the next morning after a cup of coffee from the Conoco. We passed the overlook near Jasper (the same one at the top of the page) on the way out and stopped again. It was early with the sunshine just coming into the valley, and the misty clouds from the night before still hanging around. I was able to get a couple of shots from the top of the overlook and stitch them together:

The rest of the drive back was uneventful. We stopped as Sonic again for lunch and made it back to the house in the early afternoon. We strung up the tents behind the shed and started putting things away until next year…