Meramec River – Section 1

Section 1 of the Meramec starts at the river’s source at Short Bend and traverses 78.6 miles to Campbell Bridge Access. By most accounts, the first 26 miles are not generally floatable and, even with the water up in the Spring, involve lots of portages. A friend that did paddle it said it took them 3 days and she never wants to do it again. I haven’t floated that top section yet but, I hope to in the next couple years for the adventure of it and so I can truthfully say I’ve paddled the whole Meramec.

Woodson K. Woods to to Scott’s Ford Access

I really loved this section. I was fortunate to paddle it with key members of the St. Louis Canoe and Kayak Club and they were wonderful folks to paddle with. The water was crystal clear during our visit and overall, just had a nice feel to it. A highlight of the section was visiting Meramec Springs Park. I hadn’t been there since I was a young child. It is truly beautiful and interesting. You should be prepared to pay a small fee for visiting but we didn’t find any staff to pay.

There were nice, mostly easy class-I rapids (aka riffles) sprinkled throughout the segment. There was one spot where a fairly fast rapid from a 8-inch ledge flowed you into a pile of drift wood and it required some vigorous paddling and choosing a good line to avoid getting hung up or knocked off your boat. Less skilled paddlers could drag their boats through a shallow section on the left.

In order to run this section without dragging a bunch, there needs to have been some significant recent rains. It can definitely get too low to float enjoyably in mid to late summer.

The shuttle between Woodson K. Woods and Scott’s Ford is only 7.8 miles and takes around 13 minutes which is nice and quick for a 9 mile section of river. Very convenient. I only gave it a 4-rating because it is a 90 mile drive from St. Louis.

Scott’s Ford Access to Bird’s Nest Beach

As I continue my quest to paddle all 219 miles of the Meramec River (in small chunks), I finally had a chance to knock out a 15-mile segment of Section 1 (aka the upper Meramec). On Sunday, July 23rd, two friends and I set out from Scott’s Ford Access and paddled to Bird’s Nest Beach. Both access points were nice and had a good number of people around (a good thing as your catalytic converter is less likely to get misplaced). It is a easy 20-minute drive between the two access points. There was one other public access point, Riverview Public Access off Highway O) within this segment so it could be in smaller or different chunks.

I didn’t really expect there to be many outfitters or people along this segment as I hadn’t really heard much about it. I was wrong. There were at least 4 outfitters in the section: Adventure Outdoors, Indian Springs, Birds Nest Lodge, and The Rafting Company. Lots of people were out on this particular Sunday enjoying the river in rafts, kayaks, tubes, and a few jet boats. Mostly larger groups but all well-behaved. This definitely seems to be a family-friendly floating section.

Recent rains had brought the river up to a nice level. The segment started out really fun with good gradient and frequent easy rapids for the first 3 miles or so but it got much slower and flatter for the last 10 miles. The last 10 miles did have some rapids and 2 ledges (a rock ridge where the river drops a good bit in a couple feet) but it was a lot of paddling. There was a good 15-foot-high cliff that was good for jumping off (forgot to take a picture) probably around mile 12.

There were 2 springs in this segment. The first was about 3 miles from Scott’s Ford. It was small and nice. I haven’t found a name for it. The 2nd was Fishing Spring and it is spectacular with a great cave and a blue pool.

There are a couple banners advertising the last 6 miles of this section as the “#1 top-rated 6-mile float”. I have no idea what the basis is for this. Doing it in a raft seems like it’d be a very slow trip with all the slow moving pools. Overall, a nice float. Not as scenic as other segments of the Meramec (not many rock bluffs or rock formations). If you’re coming from St. Louis, I think there are some better floats closer by, but Fishing Spring is what really sets this one apart.

Huzzah Conservation to Onondaga Cave

If you’re looking for crowds, loud music, and drunken shenanigans, this is the section of the Meramec River for you, at least on Saturdays. The biggest outfitters (Huzzah Valley, Bass River, Ozark Outdoors, and Blue Springs) put lots of boats, mostly rafts, onto this 4-mile section.

This section actually starts on the Huzzah Creek but after a mile joins into the Meramec River. It is definitely an easy-to-navigate, beginner-friendly section but, due to the crowds and behaviors, I wouldn’t recommend it for beginners during the weekend unless you are more into the party than the river.

[Pictures coming soon]