HI to Beaver Kayak Adventure

On Saturday a a group of us (Heather, Christy, Dorothy and I) decided to go out and explore the high water at Beaver Town. After scouting both sides of the bridge for a parking spot Christy Braswell came up with the idea of paddling from the Holiday Island point towards Leatherwood Creek and portaging where the old railroad trestle would have crossed from Table Rock Lake to Leatherwood Creek. We have thought of paddling up her before and climbing over - who would have thought that you could just carry your boat a few feet to the other side. 

It was all so surreal - we paddled both over and under the Golden Gate Bridge! From the bridge we paddled up the hiking trail - it was clear and out of the wind - did you ever imaging that you would be able to paddle behind Poker bluff? There were a couple of copperheads trying to get up out of the water on the bluffs.

We also explored up Butler Creek (hardly a "creek") and paddled nearly to 187. We passed the Blue Heron Rookery and saw lots of wildlife. Once we hit current in Butler Creek we turned back.

The water on the Beaver side was a beautiful blueish green - the Holiday Island side was kind of brown. There was not as much debris as I would have expected - there were spots like the trestle where it gathered and you could see some in the treetops where the water had receded. 

Back at the put in you can see that the old HI bridge is completely underwater - not at all accessible - except by Kayak!

ESOA, March 18 Meeting

At the March 18 meeting, we planned a couple of events for April. If you need more info, please call Nick at 479-244-5775. We hope to see you at one of these events or at or next monthly meeting!

Service Project
Tuesday April 15, 5:30 'til dark,
Leatherwood Ball Fields
Thursday April 17, 5:30 'til dark,
Leatherwood Ball Fields
Meet at the Leatherwood Ball Fields parking lot. Due to people's busy schedules and the start of daylight savings time we decided to schedule two short work days during the week. We will be continuing work on the Kiosk at the ball fields. Work will consist of framing the kiosk structure, bring carpentry tools or just a helping hand.

Social Activity
Sunday April 13, 2:00pm, Sunfest Parking Lot
Day-hike on 154-acre land trust property, north of Eureka Springs. This is a privately owned property that has been put into to a land trust, so as to preserve it's natural character. The owner is an active hiker and is open to the idea of developing hiking trails on the property.
We will be hiking on an existing trail and scouting the potential for future ESOA trail projects. This is a great opportunity to visit an area that sees very little human traffic and is relatively close to town. Meet in the Sunfest parking lot, across from the main Holiday Island entrance at 2:00pm. From there, we will carpool and caravan the short distance to the hiking area.

Next meeting: Tuesday, May 13, 2008, 6:30pm (location to be determined)

Other items from our meeting:

-On Sunday March 2, 16 volunteers came out to contribute nearly 45-hours of work at Lake Leatherwood. Participants spent time digging holes and pouring concrete during completion of phase I of the kiosk project. Other volunteers spent time hiking the trails, picking up trash and cleaning trail markings left from a race recently held at the park. Six large trash bags full of trash were collected throughout the day!

-17 participants met at Harmon Park on Sunday, March 9 for in-town, off-road hike. The days route, approx. 3-miles passed many of the springs, scenic areas and green spaces found right here in town. Areas for upcoming ESOA service projects were also identified during the hike.

-The logo committee gave a report/presentation of concepts that they had been working on since the last meeting. The concepts they shared were very impressive. You can see the logos on the next post down, please take a moment to post a comment giving your input on the logo designs.

-After the business portion of the meeting, Steven Foster gave a slide show presentation on medicinal plants in the Ozarks. Steven is world-renowned in the field of medicinal plants and his presentation was nothing short of amazing. We are very fortunate to have Stephen involved with the ESOA!

ESOA Logo Poll

At the last ESOA meeting on Tuesday, March 18th, the logo committee gave a report on the progress that had been made on the logo design since the last meeting. The group worked from an original hand-drawn sketch for the "panorama" logo and Lorri contributed another idea based on the periodic table of elements. We want feedback on these designs before moving forward with finalizing the logo concepts. Please take a moment to look at the following logos and to share your thoughts by posting a comment. Also a big "thanks" to Chris Fischer, Lorri Carter and Christi Braswell for working on these concepts.


Full Color Panorama
Black and White Panorama #1

Black and White Panorama #2

"In Our Element" logo

Table of elements logo #1

Table of elements logo #2

Please comment on these logos, your input is valued and apprecitated!