Geez, I'm feeling a little guilty after hearing about what most of you have had to put up with...
I got a six mile day hike in over Memorial Day Weekend when I guided a couple to "The Falls" at Hercules Glades. It was really nice here for that, just perfect in fact.
On that hike I was about 10-15 feet in front of the couple with me and I spooked a big male coyote that was snoozing in the shade under a tree just 10 feet from the trail. He heard me and jumped up all startled, looked at me, and then ran off down into the hollow that I'd hiked earlier this year. That's the closest I've ever gotten to coyote while hiking. The people with me heard, but didn't see him, so that was kind of a bummer
My wife and I got 2 days and a night (Monday & yesterday) on our little houseboat on Bull Shoals Lake. We putted about 6 miles downstream to a spot we call "Rock Cove" and anchored the boat to a point on a bluff that's usually about 40-70 feet above the water, but is now only about 5 feet above it. The lake is huge at this level, and we saw no one else at all the entire time. Over Memorial Day the surface temp of the lake water was 67º, it was between 85º and 89º yesterday, but still cool a few feet below the surface. The marina is still all busted up though, and the road that goes to it is under about 30 feet of water, so it's a pain to get out to the boat with gas, food, and supplies and all. Right now, we have to take a little boat over a mile to get to our boat
Today we went down to the Buffalo River NP and did about a 7 mile float. Man was it ever sweet! On the way there we stopped at "Coursey's Smoked Meats" and got some smoked ham sandwiches to bring with us. We put in at Baker's Ford and took out at Grinder's Ferry and only saw one other group of canoeers (six people) till we got to the take out. The water was running just enough to not have to paddle much and it was crystal clear and cool, perfect for skinny dipping.
We might head back there next week and spend a few nights on the River.
The lakes and streams are really the great bonus you get here when backpacking season is off. Both my wife and I love to swim so we spend more time together this time of year, and that's nice. She won't go backpacking with me, but she will camp out on float trips, and I still get to play with all my backpacking gear when we do that
We took a few pics of the float we did today. I'll post a few in a day or two.