This Labor Day weekend, we got a big group of people together and hit the Huzzah River for a float trip, a very traditional thing to do on Labor Day in St. Louis. Jen, Kate, Katie, Chris, Rob, Matt, Amanda, Steve, Kim and myself made up the group, and we took two cars down to Huzzah Valley Campgrounds to rent two rafts and put in for a 6 hour float. We were able to pack just enough beer to hold us over:
Since there were so many of us, we split up into two rafts. The Speedy Raft:
And the Lazy Raft:
Eventually, we tied together to let the Speedy Raft pull us down the river so we could enjoy the sun, drink, food, water, and the flashing hoosier women. Unfortunately, we didn’t get pictures of the flashing hoosier women. We cracked open the bags of chips pretty quickly to counteract the beer, jello shots, and kamikazes, but we didn’t stop there. We got into the cookies, rice krispy treats and cookie cake right away as well.
Basically, we spent the whole day floating down the river, jumping in to swim / get dragged / pee / cool off, jumping out to catch some rays and drink some beers, all the while shooting the breeze and having a good time.
As we stumbled out of the river at the end of the day (some more than others — Kate had sprained her knee on a submerged tree) we knew that we would be doing this again next year. What a great time! And the best part is that this more or less qualified for another one of our STL101 series:
80. To float the Current River, one of Missouri’s three protected scenic rivers. Peaceful and spring-fed, it can be paddled even in winter and has no real hazards—except that current.