Mid week is a great time to kayak Lake of the Ozarks in the summer time (I would not suggest doing it on the weekend due to the chop from all the boat traffic)....Herons, swallows, deer...tons of wildlife in this part of the lake- both sides are part of the State Park so there is no development
The trip was outstanding! Ray and I have been wanting to do a "big river" trip for the last couple of weeks. The Missouri River stage is really down right now, so it is a very quick and fun paddle. Stage when we went out Saturday was about 12' gauge hght. and 66,000 flow (cfs). I am marking this and saving it....I have paddled this river at different stages and this one had to be my favorite. I think if they had the Race for the Rivers today, some records would be broke.
If you watch the film, when Ray comes up on the Page Extension Bridge,I caught an Asian carp flying across his bow. He had a couple of major carp come flying in front of his kayak, but unfortunately, my camera was off when it happened.
The slough that we went through just past the 40 bridge just beside the Chesterfield bottoms was outstanding. It had a real nice flow running through it (we clocked about 4 mph) the entire stretch. There is something about paddling the big rivers that just excites me. I am already planning another trip, possibly the Alton Lock and Dam to the Gateway Arch. Maybe this will be the summer we make it happen?
DeGray Lake is located near the town of Arkadelphia, Arkansas about an hour south of Little Rock and about 60 miles north of the Texas/Arkansas border. I was on a kayak fishing chat room and was told that DeGray has Alligators, however, I did not see any on this trip.
This lake is absolutely incredible! It is speckled with little rock islands covered with various trees, many of the conifer variety, which, when I see these pine like trees, always reminds me of either northern Wisconsin or Colorado.
I did a little over 5 miles, setting off from the boat ramp at the state park and paddling around one of the larger islands and then crossing the channel to go around one of the smaller, rocky islands. This time of year you can see a lot of different variety of ducks. I hear that this lake is also known for its bald eagle winter population....I did not see any, but I am sure they are out there. On the paddle back to shore, I heard the call of a wipper-will, which really gave the whole trip a nice effect...there was no one out on the lake, and it was incredibly calm, so the whole trip had a nice "zen-like" effect (which is what I really needed)
I would like to come back when it warms up and camp on one of the islands with the kayak. I will be looking into what the exact regulations are in regards to that.
If you are down south, you owe it to yourself to explore this lake with a kayak or canoe
