Kayaking the Hailstone - Buffalo National River - February 2023 - Full Edit
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- 2 Kayaks, 5 Rafts, and a bright sunshine filled February day in the Boston Mountains of Arkansas. This is the 'Hailstone' - The very most upper floatable section of the Buffalo National River. It only runs a handful of times a year, and when the water is up it never stays up for more than a day, but when you catch it, it's a magical wilderness whitewater journey.
To see a shortened (under 3 minutes) version of this video, with just the big rapids - click HERE: • Kayaking the Hailstone...
Lived in AR most of my Life. Only one in family who hasn't floated it. I think its about time..with some experts of course. Thank you for this excellent footage sirl
Oh I get it now. Actually recent flood water.
Cool vid. Thx for sharing. I haven't done this stretch. Very technical. The boxley run which I have done was insane. Not as technical but the wave trains and suck holes were crazy. Very cool vid. Loved it
Thanks! I cut my teeth running Boxley at high water lots of times before upgrading to run the Hailstone. It's definitely a step up... but still lots of fun.
I've got an inflatable Coleman that I've taken down dozens of miles of river in the past nothing this crazy but if I had somebody there near me with a big old raft I'd try it until I destroyed mine... It would make a great durability test
I always wanted to run the Hailstone! 🙂
My home river was always the Saint Francis. 🙂
Man that looks like a lot of fun! Does anyone run this in an open canoe? Almost looks doable. Thanks for posting this!
There have been a few that have run it in open boats - typically with lots of flotation bags and pumps - but yea, doable :)
Great video! I’ve wanted to do the Hailstone for a long time!
Great video!! Looks like you timed it just right for a good day. So is this from Boxley to Steel Creek? I was planning a trip from Boxley to steel creek and was wondering where you put in at in Boxley? I was also wondering is this section worth fishing? The flow of the water in your video would not be good fishing to me.
Is there a good CFM to float and fish this section or is it hard to float if there has not been rain and white water when it does rain? Thanks for any information.
This video shows the run from above Boxley (Put in from a Forest Service road just south of Fallsville off of Highway 21) and taking out at the Boxley Bridge. It's described in detail here: www.ozarkpages.com/cgi-bin/crfind.pl?Hailstone
This run is Class II / III+ Whitewater - and very seasonal at that. It's not high enough to hold much of a fish population most of the year, and only reaches floatable levels maybe 7-10 times a season. I would *not* recommend even thinking about trying to fish from a boat, cause if the water is high enough to float, you're going to be busy keeping yourself upright most of the time. You should have at least intermediate whitewater skills and a lot of experience, plus a knowledgable guide before attempting this run. The next section down is Boxley to Ponca Low Water Bridge, which is also seasonal and Class II whitewater at runnable levels. It's not as bad as the Hailstone, but still you should be equipped for heavy whitewater before attempting, which rules out fishing. From Ponca downriver (ie Steel Creek) the river mellows to Class I / II whitewater, and fishing becomes more normal.
@@ozarkdave hey thank you so much for the great information you gave. Yeah I agree with the water like that, it’s definitely nothing I would want to fish.
Once this section reaches floating stage, how long will it stay at floating stage? A day, 2 day, 3 days? I live in NE Oklahoma so it’s something I would have to plan to get there before it goes down to un floatable. Thank you again for the information.
@@LIVE4THEADVENTURE Once it hits floating level after a big rain, you probably have a day on average before it drops below range again, but it also depends on precisely how much rain came down, time of year, ground saturation, ect. Generally if you live a ways away, you better be ready to get on the road at a moment's notice to catch this run properly :)
@@ozarkdave thank you for the information. I was guessing the water flow would not stick around to long
This must begin upstream quite a ways.
It's basically the very top of the Buffalo River, just a few miles downstream of the creek confluences where the actual 'Buffalo' begins.