September is a month of transition in the outdoor world. The first part of the month is normally still warm enough for pleasure float trip. We reported on some floats taken in August - and one camping trip where the fun was watching other floaters. That's where the photo below came from - floaters on Current River between Pulltite and Round Spring. There was also a fun trip on Black River with grandkids, repeated below, as well as float trips where the main goal was fishing. St. Francis River,
Meramec River. Fall fishing really gets underway this month.

Floating Black River on a marvelous day
By Bob Todd
I know we fish and float among our readers from time to time, but usually they don’t recognize us.
Having Sam and Shannon Dickerson along probably made the difference. They’re our grandchildren and their pictures - as with this story - make them recognizable.
We had no more than pulled into Jeff’s Canoe Rental parking lot, west of Annapolis, when a fellow came hoofing over. Greg Rudroff. He writes for us now and then. (Remember breakfast at Marble Creek last winter? A neat out-of-the-box adventure!)
We’ve only corresponded with Greg, never met, but he too was about to do a float on Black River and recognized us. We were definitely attention-getting. Two kayaks on a trailer that rattled worse than a garbage truck, a canoe on top, and of course, Sam and Shannon.
We put in at a private access about six miles up Black River and immediately, came to a cave which the kids had to “explore”. And another person who knew us.
Mark Goodwin of Jackson. He guessed who we were, and when he said his name, we recognized him. He is a frequent contributor to the Missouri Conservationist.
A few others recognized us as well and identified themselves as readers. We were about to build a fire to make charcoal to sign autographs, but nobody went so far as to ask for one. Sam may have been disappointed about that.
The July issue of Traveler had a picture of Sam, 11 then - 12 now, with a rifle that his ancestor used to kill a panther at Boonville in the early 1800s. Shannon was in a photo in the August issues, on a kayak, on Big Piney River.
There is a split channel not far below the cave on Black River and the kids asked if they could follow the smaller channel. We said yes and off they went on the kayaks.
It is a good half mile before that channel rejoins the main river. Pat was getting concerned. But worst case, they could have found it impassable and would have had to paddle back up to the main channel. Besides, with the kids behind the island, no one recognized us.
We came to the junction at almost the same time as the kids. They’d encountered one log jam and had to drag a couple shallow riffles, but for a half mile they were explorers, sighting herons and fish and turtles.
We stopped for lunch at a cool swimming place. A swift chute swirled against the bluff, across from an open gravel bar. We’d already decided not to fish very hard. It was a gorgeous bluebird day, and fishing was simply too much of an effort once we discovered they were not exactly setting records anyway.
As we finished lunch, we were recognized again, by folks who were stopping here for lunch of their own.
The weather deserves special note. The air felt cool when you got out of the water until you dried, but was not hot enough to drive you right back into the water. The water was cool, but not spring water cold. It would be hard to ask for a better day for river activity. It was even cool enough that Greg and his son built a fire to cook hot dogs.
After lunch, it got a little zany. Sam was practicing turning his kayak over on purpose. In one chute, it turned him over without him trying. Shannon managed to flip too, but had to really try.
Not so for Gramma Pat. She took a turn on a kayak and proved they can be tipped unintentionally. It was a shoal that narrowed to a swift, deep chute. In the middle, it looked at a distance like some small, limber roots were sticking out of the water. In any case, she had the whole river on either side of the roots.
But she over corrected to avoid the roots, and instead, slammed into them. Sideways. And among the limber ones was a stiff, stout one. As she went off the kayak, the nose of the thing shot up in the air. Quite a sight. Quite a scream. She was scratched, but not bleeding.
Too bad the camera was put up. I tried to talk her into taking the kayak back up and doing it again for a picture. But no. What would her fans say?
Then the kids got into experimenting. They’d sit on the front of the kayak and paddle it backwards. Sam did this a lot. And fell off repeatedly. He stayed wet long enough to get cold at one point and we had to stop and let him dry and warm.
Shannon tried floating with the kayak upside down. Not very responsive to a paddle that way.
We were glad we didn’t see anyone we knew late in the day.
Or, maybe now, they didn’t want to acknowledge that they knew us.
What a come down.
Oh well. It was a marvelous float.
The Past - September, 1980
In the September, 1980 edition of Traveler, there is an account of a court case in Bollinger County that might have had major impact on stream access in Missouri.
Seems a fellow had been injured when he jumped or dived from a rock into Castor River. He sued the landowner. And while the land- owner’s insurance company might have settled, the landowner would have nothing of it. They went to court, and a Bollinger County jury absolved the landowner of any liability.
There was a story on mooneye, a seldom caught Ozark fish. Quail and waterfowl seasons were announced. Quail season was Nov. 10 through Dec. 31 with a bag limit of six.
For waterfowl, Missouri was divided into two zones, opening Oct. 18 north of Highway 72, Oct. 23 to the south. There was a point system as a bag limit.
Al Agnew reported on the Big River situation. Lead contamination was found to be high enough for warnings about eating fish from the river, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was trying to figure out what to do with the proposed Pine Ford Dam, now that environmental studies were required before they could build a dam.
Pine Ford was part of the Meramec Basin plan. Meramec Dam had already been scuttled after Missourians voted against it.
There was a feature on Webb Creek Recreation Area on Clear- water Lake. Then as now, Webb Creek was touted as a place to be in the morning.
For 40 years, the Conservation Department and the Division of State Parks had shared the title to a number of state parks. That came to an end, with MDC basically giving up its title to parks including Sam A. Baker.
The requirement that deer hunters wear blaze orange was new and there were a number of letters from people complaining about the regulation. Most of those opposing the requirement thought it would be okay on public land, but thought it ought not be required on private lands.
Part II in a series on the volcanic past of the east Ozark area highlighted the museum on the mountain above Taum Sauk Lake. There, an excellent graphic representation of the geology of this area - including its volcanos - is available.

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