No misspelling here, we tackled the Niangua river this week in our new Bote (Brand name) paddle boards and kayaks after experimenting with the kids Botes last year. We may never go back to the traditional canoe way of floating. I became instantly enamored with these inflatable conveyances which, for the uninitiated, ain’t your grand daddy’s aluminum canoe! So here’s is the cliff note version of our experiences.
The Niangua is in season, but wasn’t bad this week, save a flotilla of high school girls from a camp somewhere close and an occasional covey of plastic kayaks or canoes. There are fish here, but they have to be shell shocked after a weekend of revelry on this popular river. We picked the right week, as this coming weekend marks the “Pride Float” on the Niangua. There were several floaters who were apparently scouts for the main group of diversity seeking participants, which we are told are divided into a ratio of 80% men to 20% women. This event is sponsored by the prestigious “Camp Daddies”. Gay is one thing, a fact of life these days, but the thought of hundreds of “tucked” women’s bathing suits on men strutting around our sandbars is just too much for this old Ozarkian.
One of the primary reasons these boats fit our lifestyle is portability. They deflate and fold back into their large roller bag and are tossed into the beds of your truck leaving room for plenty of additional gear. You do need a 12 volt pump less you are in triathlon shape to man the provided oversized bicycle style hand pumps. The pressures are low, yet result in an extremely firm floor and sidewalls. We ‘re talking pressures between 3 and 10 psi. We’re also talking a lot of air at that pressure, thus the need for a pump. These boats are not your discount store rafts, flimsy and likely to leave you at mush bottom eddy when you nick a rock and lose pressure.
Back to the boats. They are incredibly tough, with a double bottom and an inflatable floor that leaves them completely rigid. They easily slip over the shallow shoals, nearly capable of floating over water that that a leaf would drag on. They are also ingeniously self bailing! Getting on the damned thing set me up for a undignified spectacle, in front of bank fishermen and women near Bennet Springs that were at once sympathetic and stunned. I made Joe Biden look like one of the Flying Wallendas with my performance. Very impressive! Then, after my spectacular entry, and only then, did my son-in-law explain the proper way to mount one of these things. Thanks, Tom!
In short, we had a ball! The boats are maneuverable, extremely stable and glide over water with little resistance. Their durability is impressive and the rigidity at such low pressure has to be seen to be believed. As might be expected, there is a catalogue of accessories for them from rod racks to coolers made to fit in predetermined locations. The boats are not inexpensive and the accessories aren’t either, but they combine to make a tidy, light, packable way to see our beautiful rivers. They are not, however, indestructible. When loading my boat in the back of the truck, we encountered a sharp edge where the roll-down truck bed cover is mounted. It made short work of one of the boats sides, opening a cut eliciting gasps from all in attendance. A quick call to the Bote home office delivered a solution to our carelessness, and these sharp edges will be history when I get to my grinder. Botes are many things, however they demand respect.
Another way to enjoy our rivers! Google “Bote” and look this inflatable over. It is well worth it to not have to take two vehicles to the river to enjoy your own equipment! We’ll see you on the river.
Have a good week!
SR
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