St. Lou, MO Camping/Float trip anyone???

Can you tell me how far away this is? I am sorry but I am still a little confused. Steve doesn't get off until after 6 so we will be arriving late on Friday if this place is out aways...

Is everyone then, bringing their own food and things? I have never camped in Missouri, so unsure of the basic needs.

 

Christine,
It is about an hour and a half or so away. I am going to see if Jeremy can get off of work on Friday so we can go down there at check in time to set up camp. If he can't we can all caravan together. I will let you know on that one.

We will be taking all our food and drinks with us. They do have a store at the campsite, but it is really expensive. They also have a store in town, which is not to far away. There are restaurants in town too if you want to eat at a restaurant. We only do this if it rains or someone gets sick.
We normally take eggs and bacon for breakfast or donuts and fruit or both. This way the kids can eat while we are getting the fire started. We usually do lunchmeat and chips for lunch and maybe little debbie snacks or fruit. Then it is usually pork steaks, hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner. Greenbeans or pork and beans is easy to warm up on the fire in the can. You can also pre-cook corn on the cob and baked potato's and then warm them up in tinfoil on the grill. We always have smores or jiffy popcorn as a snack late at night too. We tend to eat alot of hotdogs also. Something about cooking them yourself over the fire. In the summer the less you have to keep cold the better. We use two coolers. One for drinks and one for food. This way the food cooler stays colder. I have a huge drink cooler that I am going to drink to bring if we have room. That way we can fill it with ice and water and use gatorade, koolaid or instant ice tea mix or just water to keep us all hydrated. We keep all our other food items and camping items in a rubbermaid box in case of rain or raccoons.
Also, if you do not have swimming shoes, get them. The beach is rock as is the river and swimming shoes just make a world of difference. Or you can use old tennie shoes you won't mind getting wet. We are taking Bruiser with us also. But dogs do have to be on a leash at all times. We use on of those retractable leashes. Sorry, I could go on and on.
I will let you know about Friday and if we will go down early or if we will caravan. If anyone wants to go in together on food let me know. We do this with our other friends when camping and then share cooking duties.

 

we're still hoping to make this. What town is this place near?

 

Tim, it's south of Sullivan...closer to Steelville.

If anyone is interested (or bored): Sunday night we're going camping at the Eldon Hazlet State Park at Carlyle Lake (IL). Gotta test out the tent somewhere besides our yard. We are quite pleased with our new one.

Leash, how much do I owe you for reservations and stuff? I'll bring it to the next meeting with me.

 

Tim,
Here is the link to Bass river resort . They are in Steelville and really easy to get to. There is directions on the website. They make it easy to get to with signs all along the way. This area is full of resorts, campsites and canoe rental places.

Amy,
I wish we could go, but I work. Let me know how it is and let's plan to camp again soon with the kids. Our kids really seemed to hit it off. Especially the little ones. You won't owe me for the reservation. Everyone will be responsible for there own camping fees upon arrival and the canoe fees if they are floating.
Camping fees are :
Adult $7.50 p/person/night - $7.99 w/tax
Children 8-12 yrs $4.00 p/child/night - $4.26 w/tax
Children Under 8 yrs Free
Canoes are :
Saturday & Sunday Rate $40.00 /canoe or $20.00 /person
Children 13 and over riding as a 3rd person $10.00 each
Children 12 and under riding as a 3rd person No Charge
Christine and I decided to go together on food for the trip. If anyone else would like to join us let me know. It will cut down on grill time and save money too.
Thanks everyone for bearing with me on this. I am really excited about going!!!

 

We will need a second adult in our canoe if anyone that is going, needs a spot... (Just advertising... )

 

I'm in on the trip; I'll do Sat. Night and a kayak. I'll go in for some food, I suppose - we'll see what we all have in mind for that.

 

Yeah, based on when I get off work I'm going to drive down early satuday morning, and camp that night. I don't feel like trying to find it in the middle of the night.

 

Amy, I talked to someone in class tonight who was up there a couple weeks back, and she said they have electric at all the sites...

 

Sweet! How about internet connections at all the sites?

 

Umm, she doesn't even have a computer, so she wouldn't have known... weird person.

 

John and E I am glad you are both coming still. Like I said I am excited about this. Christine and I will work out a menu of sorts. Real simple, we do about the same thing every time we camp. Then anyone who wants to go in can and if not, no problem.
John and Tim we have room in both my husbands canoe and Christine's husbands canoe so we can balance it out. Both husbands are taking one child who will sit in the middle. Is that okay with you John and Tim? E this works out perfect on the canoes if you are going to do the kayak.
Thanks again everyone! I am really looking forward to this.

 

Its fine for me, but reading into Tims post I'd say he's still planning on bringing his wife. And I think I'll be doing my own food.

 

I think Tim's wife was going to stay back at camp though. We'll figure out the canoe situation when we all get there and get set up.

 

Well, the Mrs. says she may want to float now. And like I said, we'll bring our own eats.

Do we have an exact campsite yet?

 

One thing we'll want to check on before we leave is how much water is actually in the rivers. By then, it might not be a problem at all; I was hiking way out in the boonies this weekend, and all the rivers were completely bone dry. The rivers at the site don't really dry out, but they will become shallow enough to make us drag our boats a good hunk of time.
We can call ahead of time to see how the rivers are; usually the Scotia run on the Courtois is the deepest, IIRC. It's also the more scenic of the short runs. Hopefully we'll get some good rain dumped on us before then (just not while I'm at the lake, please!)and it won't be an issue.

 

Well, our camping trip last night went pretty well. We'll be going back there again soon. But now I'm sunburned (again) and I woke up at 5:00am and found a tick crawling on the back of my neck. We had to pay $15 for our site just so that Tim could sleep to the sound of a fan. Regularly, without electricity, they're $8.

 

Tim,
Our actual campsite is 540. You can check it out on the map at Bass's site if you want.
I only got one site as it will hold up to 20 people and we only have 13 people. We can of course get another site when we get there if we feel it is too crowded though. There sites are pretty big though. It is next to the river, but in the shaded area. We can figure out the floating once everyone is there on Sat.

Jeremy, Rowan and I went floating this weekend with some friends of ours on the Current. It was my first time floating and was fun. The water was cold, but felt great and for being 94 it wasn't bad at all. There was a nice breeze too. We tipped twice, but it seemed to be in spots that everyone was tipping so I don't feel too bad. Rowan tried to paddle and got scared both times. The river was low in quite a few spots, but we had alot of weight in our canoe too. Rowan did well for us tipping, I was more worried about him then I should of been. It took us a long time to do a float though due to the water being so low. So -E- is right we will have to keep a eye on the river levels. We went on the Courtois in July 3 years ago and the river was low, Jeremy said they had to drag the canoes through quite a few spots. Not sure what run they did though.

Amy, I am glad you had a nice time camping. I can relate to Tim and the sound of the fan. We always have a fan on in our bedroom, even in the winter. Did you swim in the lake at all?

-E-,
Where were you hiking at?

 

Everything looks good. If I can get out of work early, I'll get on the road early, but I'm thinking it will be 8:00-9:00pm Friday night before we'll get on the road.

Anybody else still going down Friday night?

 

Tim,
My family is going down on Friday. Not sure if Jeremy can get off of work for the whole day yet. Either way we will be down there on Friday. Christine and family were going to come down on Friday also, but they had to wait for her husband to come home from work before they could leave. We might end up caravaning from Christine's house, if Jeremy can't get off of work Friday.

 

what time to they get off work?

 

Jeremy gets off work between 4:30p to 6:00p, depends on how much they have to deliver that day. I think Christine said after 5p, but I'm not positive.

 

Steve gets off around 5 on Fridays. We will leaving as soon as Leash and family get here, I think, if that is okay with her.

 

Christine that's cool! We will just caravan from your house.

 

Hey this sounds like a blast, can I come too? what kind of supplies would I need to bring along? I know about the sleeping bag, but is there any free tent space, or should I see about finding a possible cheap tent or something?