Highlights
- Plenty of fun, but easy, class I rapids with a steady, fairly-quick flow that makes doing 9 miles in a day quite easy for a relaxing day float.
- Lots of caves, stunning springs, and unique historical sites to explore
- Crystal clear water allowing you to see the bottom of the river and lots of fish clearly even at depths over 10 feet
- Absolutely beautiful surrounding area
- Great for Overnight floats as there are plenty of large gravel bars to camp on.
- Plenty of good outfitters for renting kayaks, canoes, and rafts.
Lowlights
- It can get quite crowded on weekend days, particularly Saturdays of holiday weekends and can get to be quite a party atmosphere that isn’t always family friendly.
- The water is definitely on the cool side for swimming
- Jet boats can be quite prevalent below Two Rivers (the confluence with the Jack’s Fork) and they may be going quite fast through the crowds at times. They aren’t allowed on the Current above Two Rivers
Links
- Missouri Canoe Map with Points of Interest and River Miles.
- Carr’s Canoe Rental – an outfitter located at Round Spring
Tags
I’m embarrassed to admit I hadn’t floated the Current for almost 18 years prior to my latest trip there leading a Scouts BSA troop and their families. It is a longer drive than the rivers around Steeleville, the water is colder, and I heard complaints of it being crowded. But we went the weekend after Labor Day and it wasn’t crowded at all, the drive was only 2.5 hours, and getting to explore caves and springs more than made up for any downsides.
Section: Akers Ferry to Round Spring – 18 miles
A truly spectacular section that includes the stunning Cave Spring and Pulltite Spring along with various other minor caves and points of interest along the way.
18 miles for an overnight trip was just right for our group with 11-16 year old boys (Scouts BSA) and their families. We made the 2.5 hour drive up in the morning and got on river around 11:30 AM. We took a fairly leisurely pace and picked out a gravel bar for camping about 8.5 miles downriver at around 5pm.
Pulltite Access (which is also a campground and Spring) is half-way through this section so you could easily do either half of this as a 9 mile single day trip.
Most of our group used Carr’s Canoe Rental for renting Canoes. Carr’s is located at Round Spring so you park at Round Spring and they take you up-river and you float back down to your car which is ideal as you don’t have to wait for someone to take you back to your car. Those of us with our own boats were able to easily shuttle our boats and park in large, free parking lots without issue.