Wilderness Canoe Trip

These photos were taken a couple years ago when Ryan and I were actively involved in a local Boy Scout venture crew and went with them on a 60 mile canoe trip down the Arkansas River here in Oklahoma.

Technically speaking, this trip wasn't through a wilderness area, although it could easily have passed for one since (with the exception of 3 bridges) no houses or other signs of human life were visible from the river. Other than paddling against a strong headwind on the third day, the rest of the trip was pretty enjoyable.

(All photos copyright by Dave Miller).
This "topo" map (from Tera Server) shows the area we went through. For those not familiar with reading this type of map, Green represents forested areas and white represents cleared areas (in this case, farm land).



Preparing supper. The evening meal was the only hot meal for the day.


Ready to launch... (morning of day 2)

Air drying wet clothing after a spill...


A rather cold lunch. Normally we didn't bother with a fire at lunch but did in this case to help warm up.

Bailing out our canoe... yet again! Ryan and I managed to get a canoe with a hairline crack in one of the ribs. Consequently, we typically had 3 to 4 inches of water in the bottom each time we stopped.