Riverton Cabin Remembered

The frigid weather and desolate winter landscape has me thinking back to last January, to the float trip that didn't happen. Being on the Eleven Point would have been nice, but the cabin at Hufstedler's, with the big fire right outside the backdoor, was too warm and tempting compared to the 10 degrees outside.

Besides, it was still a cool trip. I killed my first deer, and Jeff took his Jeep off road for the first time. We found prehistoric girlie pictures in the old workshop and explored a creepy old house.

The thing I remember best is the slow pace and the stark calm of the landscape, and as hectic as things get around the holidays, I wouldn't mind heading back down there soon.

March Snow

Ed, it gradually got snowier as we went into Springfield. There was just a trace at Cody, but by the time we got to James River Expressway, cars were slowed to a crawl and the roads still had snow on them.

According to one of my favorite websites, Bennett Spring was covered with snow, yet the nearby city of Lebanon had hardly a dusting. By the way, if you ever get a hankering for a vicarious escape to the trout stream, check out the site I mentioned. It's posted by Weaver's at Bennett Spring, and it always has some cool pictures.

Wild Weather

Well, the weather didn't turn out like we thought. We expected a bunch of snow, but it never came. When I looked out the window this morning, nothing. So, I turned on the TV to see if the weatherman was apologizing, but instead, he was standing outside in eight inches of snow, and it was still coming down. Springfield wound up with nine inches of snow, and our town, just fifteen miles away, got nothing.

Actually, most of the Ozarks got blanketed but we were in a tiny circle of absolutely no snow. However, our district still canceled school, because part of the area was under several inches of snow.

The rivers got a lot of snow. I imagine the view from Jam Up Cave is probably beautiful today. Eminence is still out of school tomorrow. But, I wouldn't want to float the Jacks Fork today. All the rivers are out of their banks right now. We currently have a precipitation surplus that's over seven inches.

Okay, well that's enough for todays weather report.

Fickle Missouri Weather

The first two days of March were warm and beautiful across the Ozarks. Temperatures were in the low seventies on Sunday. I'm sure there were a lot of happy fisherman at the trout parks for opening day. I thought about taking the boys up to Bennett Spring just to watch all the opening day hoopla.

We decided to go down to Uncle Marvin's ponds instead. We put up the boy's tent, fished a little, and played pooh sticks in the little creek that flows out of the big middle pond. We didn't catch any fish, but we had a good time playing along the creek and enjoying what felt like a spring day.

The warm weather didn't last long. The temperature dropped steadily all day long today. Now, it's sleeting and we expect up to ten inches of snow before morning. It will be nice if it just snows and we don't end up with any ice. Ice storms every other weekend are starting to get old.

Crazy Weather

We had an ice storm this week that left us without power for a couple days, but it sure was pretty.

Fish

Do you think we'll catch some trout? I bet we can if we fish deep enough. I'm sure there won't be much competition from other fisherman on the Eleven Point in January.

I've been hankering to fish lately but haven't found time.