by Festus » Wed May 08, 2013 9:24 am
We have a 15' canoe and two kayaks. My wife doesn't go camping or floating, so it's just my son & me. There are lots of float rivers and streams in MIssouri, mostly Class I & II water, easy floats, but really scenic. What I have found though is that is about as cheap to just rent from an outfitter and not hassle with taking your own boats and then paying for a portage to transport you to or from the put in/ take out point. The outfitters charge almost as much to portage your canoe as it does to rent one. If you can find someone local to transport you rather than going through an outfitter it is usually cheaper. Fifteen to twenty river miles per day is not uncommon. Depending on river access, the ground milage for put in/take out can sometimes be considerable, although on the Gasconade River there is one section that you can float 15 miles and take out only two miles overland from where you put in. We usually take the boats when we are camping on a lake where we can paddle around for fun or fish and not really worry about having to transport the boats to put in/ take out spots.