Me and a my buddy (a ground dweller) left on Sunday 5/19. We went up river this year to Kyle's Landing the first night. The river was low........Monday. We camped at Ozark on Monday night, 5/20. The excellent park host kept everyone off the river and we had hourly updates as those storms that wrecked Moore Oklahoma, headed to us. I got in my WBBB 1.1 DL with my summer WB top and bottom quilt at 8:30 and awaited "the blast". I used my new Superfly tarp. I didn't have the side pulls staked out, which I should have. The thunder, lightening, heavy ran, and high winds hit us full on at 9:15 and went full blast until after midnight. All my gear was dry and I fell asleep after that. The storm raged on. My gear worked just great. In the morning, I awoke to winds hitting the tarp and some moisture coming off it and into my bug netting. I just kept sleeping (the side pull outs would have stopped that). We got up anyway, moved to the pavillion to let things dry out. The river was up 4 inches that day, giving us several Class-2 Rapids to contend with.
We proceeded down river, pulling out at noon on Friday, doing 60 miles in four days. We camped at camp grounds every night. Due to budget issues, every other camp area is locked (no water, no bathrooms/latrines). But we were at open ones.
Tuesday, we put in and walked our first (of two) loads up to the camp area. Low and behold....HAmmock Hangers! Four guys hanging. They were eager to help anyone, cutting down some weeds for my set up. THey had spent the day there, hanging, fishing and drinking (they had a relative near to resupply them). Hammockers are the nicest. We declined them hauling up our gear, as we do it in two trips. Another canoe person pulled in and took them up on their offer to help. He had a LOAD in that canoe, as he was out for like 10 days. The four hammockers just picked up his fully loaded canoe and carried it up off the river.
My worst hang was at Woolum, which is mostly a horse camp. I had to hang above "leavings" to be in the trees.
So, WB gear survived 40 MPH winds, heavy rains, etc. A great test of my gear in adverse weather.
Seen on the river: Deer (countless), ELK! (reintroduced), turtles, an otter, two bald eagles, fish
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