Canoe outfitters look toward holiday

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August 17, 2008

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Sun Aug 17, 2008, 10:36 PM CDT

By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

PINEVILLE, Mo. — For the past three years or so, the question has been: “How much dragging is there?”

The answer this year, said Renee Lett, with Elk River Floats and Campground at Lanagan, is: “There’s none. The river is up. The river is awesome. It’s in the best shape I have seen it in 11 years.”

Unusually persistent rains this year, including three floods in the spring, have put plenty of water in the Elk River Watershed that includes Indian, Big Sugar and Little Sugar creeks.

But as awesome as the river has been, business has been less than stellar this year. When the economy went downstream this summer with record-high fuel prices, so did some of the business that would have made 2008 a banner year for tourism in McDonald County, according to those in the industry.

But local canoe outfitters and campground managers believe the river will still be up by Labor Day, and that fair weather on that weekend could end the season on an upbeat note.

Ed Ables, owner of Sugar Island east of Pineville, has felt the pinch of the downturn.

“I have been here for 27 years,” he said. “This has probably been the worst year since we have been here. Everybody says it’s the cost of gas that’s causing the problem. I don’t know if it’s that or not, but it really hasn’t been a good year.

“But the river is up, and we’re still hauling canoes to Cyclone. We normally can’t do that in August.”

Ables said the canoe-rental season lasts about four months. The work can be intense during those months.

“We have anywhere from at least five to six times a year where we have well over a hundred boats out on a given Saturday,” he said. “This year, the top day was 88 boats.”

But business has been fairly steady upstream on Big Sugar Creek at Camp Tilden, near Cyclone. Sammey Roark, owner of the campground, said: “It’s been fine camping and canoeing.

“The river has been so high at times we couldn’t float it. The river, right now, is amazing.”

John Tinsley, owner of Big Elk Camp and Canoe Rentals at Pineville, said: “We’re doing pretty good this year, but our business has been off for four years since we became an alcohol-free campground. But, it’s been the best year since we went that way.”

Tinsley said he expects business to decline between now and Labor Day as families return their children to school, but he is hoping the Labor Day weekend will be a good one because of the condition of the river.

“I’ve never seen it this good in August,” he said. “It’s perfect. I have never floated rafts in August, and I’m still doing it from the headwaters of Elk River to Shady Beach. That’s an eight-mile trip, and I’m still putting rafts on that stretch.

“When you think about the last three years, I was kind of ashamed to float people. But I’m greedy. I’ll sell you some walking shoes and rent you a canoe.”

Bob Corcoran, mayor of Anderson and the county’s new economic planner, said: “The tourism business has been a little bit off because of gas prices, groceries and everything else that has gone up. People have a little less spending money these days.”

Nature, too, has influenced the bottom line.

“The rivers at times have been too high,” he said. “We had three different floods, and it rained on a few weekends. But I recently visited every campground in the county. The campgrounds have done a wonderful job cleaning up after two floods in April and one in May. They’re all well-kept and mowed, and the rivers have never looked this good this late.”

Lett, with Elk River Floats and Campground, said: “We weren’t quite sure at the start of the year how we would do because of the economy and gas prices, but it’s been a lot better than we expected, and the river has to be the reason.

“It’s excellent. By now, you could never float the 12 miles from Pineville to Noel. It’s still a good float. We could have a bang-up Labor Day if fuel prices stay low and we don’t have another Hurricane Katrina or something like that.

“One thing we have learned is you never know what’s going to affect your business.”

Precipitation

Normally, the Joplin area would receive about 27.55 inches of rain by mid-August, according to the National Weather Service. So far this year, the area has received 46.54 inches of moisture in all forms.