Little Beaver Creek
May 5,6,7 2006
The Little Beaver Creek drains into the Ohio River at East Liverpool, Ohio (not the Beatles Liverpool). The terrain is rugged and very beautiful and the water is so clear for an Ohio stream, but it also was very shallow due to the lack of spring rains. Trip leaders Harold and Laurie met Tony at the group campground off Sprucevale Road, in the Little Beaver Creek State Park.
Being that the outing started on Friday May 5, Harold decided that we must
celebrate Cinco de Mayo day, starting with his Margarita’s and finishing with
Tony’s lime Jello shots. Oh and Harold made up a Monster Truck Piñata. He glued
canoeing pictures on the sides and even had two paper canoes in the bed, in the
transporting position. On the hood were jaws with sharp teeth and in the jaws
was a KAYAK!! Since there were only three of us, we waited until Saturday to
play with the piñata. We finally retired to our tents around the 1 o’clock hour.
Saturday dawned cool and partly cloudy forcing us to add clothing to stay comfortable. Laurie’s shorts were soon exchanged for long pants. At the 9 o’clock hour, in pulls Wil Baughn and his son Andy. After discussing the water level, we decided not to canoe and to go a different route. Tony and Wil are into the new high tech game of geocaching. Within walking distance of our campsite, there were three geocaches. Harold and Laurie where interested in learning, so off we all went. The first cache was entitled Rocky Road Ice Cream and was a nice hike along the creek, although uphill all the way. When we got close to where we thought the cache was, we lost the signal to our gps receivers do to heavy tree cover. All of us searched the area for the hidden treasure but could not find it. We were now on the side of a very steep hill. Finally, Tony received a signal on his gps and announced that the cache was still 520 feet further ahead. Sure enough, there it was. After taking pictures and exchanging trinkets, we started trudging back downhill. Half way down Tony remembered that he forgot his ski pole that he was using as a walking stick. We hope that someone can use it as it is still up there.
We went back to camp, ate lunch then departed for another cache. Up to the spot where "Pretty Boy Floyd" was gunned down by federal agents in 1934. Again, it was an uphill climb. After finding that one, Harold and Laurie went back to camp, Wil and Andy went to find the third cache and Tony hunted mushrooms while slowly wandering back to camp. No luck on the mushrooms that day, but great luck on the third cache.
Harold brought along an inflatable kayak and tried it on the water solo. The
water was still too shallow to paddle especially at the riffles. Therefore, we
spent the rest of the afternoon talking and reading. Come time for the potluck,
there was a flurry of activity. Cooked in the dutch ovens were pork loin and
mincemeat pie. There also was grilled asparagus and strip steak with onions and
peppers. After the feast, it was time to kill the monster truck piñata. What fun
it was seeing blindfolded adults swinging a stick at a moving piñata. We had it
on a rope pulling it up and down and making it swing side to side. We were
laughing like kids at Cedar point. Good thing no one was watching or they would
have thought we were nuts. After beating the wheels off that truck, the remnants
were burnt. Then the adult game of left, right, center came out to be played.
Someone made off with all the quarters and it wasn’t Tony.
The temperatures dropped into the 30’s Saturday night and the fire in the morning felt great. We heard some gobbling in the woods and wondered if it was turkeys or hunters trying to call in some turkeys. The spring birds sure were chirping as the sun rose above the horizon. After breakfast, Wil and Andy left to geocache their way home. Soon after Harold, Laurie and Tony parted ways. As a canoe club, we have had our share of canoeing Ohio’s streams but there is more to the club, as was evident in a fun filled weekend without any canoeing taking place. Until the Buffalo River trip in Arkansas later in May, remember:
A Bad Day Not Canoeing Still Beats A Good Day At Work!!