This past weekend was a camping/canoeing trip. We went to Noel, MO which is 6 miles north of the Arkansas state line. This is perhaps our favorite place to go simply because it is straight down 71 HWY and you can get there in less than 4 hours. Too bad it took us an hour just to get outside of KC, orange barrels everywhere! Once we were on the road it was smooth sailing, only one bathroom stop on the way.
After we had set up camp we started a fire. We love to have a huge fire and I took a row or wood in my truck to get us through the first night since we were going to get there close to dark. The next day we bought a whole truck load of wood, like I said we like big fires. We used to have to get the wood at Stateline Liquors for $35 but I mention this to Rod and Renee, the campground owners, and they agreed to sale us a truck load for only $30 if we bought it there. Who can argue, no need to drive 6 miles to just pay $5 more for wood, good decision on our part. Even though we did end up going to Stateline because I ran out of beer, or should I say, I knew I was going to run out of beer.
The owners know us so well, no deposit is needed and we normally canoe before we even pay. Sometimes it really helps to regularly visit a place and make good friends.
The town of Noel I thought was funny when I heard it, immediately made me think of Christmas although not one thing about the town reminds you of that. The town itself is actually bordered by the Elk River we float on. The town has pretty much any amenities you would need including gas, grocery, a small café, a Dollar General store and a very popular bar.
The bar, Shadowlake, resides right on the Elk. The bar doesn’t have any walls other than the bathrooms and game room. It has a huge over-hanging roof and is multilevel. One super cool thing about it is the BIG fans attached around the perimeter of the roof. They sometimes make a “hurricane” in the bar and turn all the fans on at once. On a busy weekend of canoeing you will see some of the prettiest ladies there.
One bad thing about Noel is the HUGE Tyson plant which is across the river from the campground. The smell you get used to in about an hour and forget about, it’s not that bad but you can smell it if the wind is blowing the right way. Besides the smell the more annoying thing is the noise, luckily they don’t run on the weekends.
We have camped in the same campsite for the past 6-7 years. Through the years some trees have fallen down and this past time we made plans to pitch the tents in another location next time we go there. One really nice thing about the campground is that you are right on the river. We can go swimming by just walking 50 feet and there is dam that you can actually wade out to in the river. It’s not a huge damn but if the water is up it can be dangerous. Last summer two teenagers drown because they went over it in their canoe. The signs that were posted were washed away by a flood but were quickly replaced after this accident.
It was a good float with very little dragging. I was quite surprised at the amount of people that were on the river though. We normally go on Memorial and Labor Day weekends and those are busy times. I actually think there were more people there this past weekend than any other time, must have been the nice weather. Keep in mind that this river attracts people of all walks but primarily the younger, “party” crowd. With that being said I would maybe avoid going with young or impressionable children.
If you are from MO and wish to go on a memorable trip consider Wayside Campground on the Elk River. http://www.missouricanoe.org/elkriver.html
