We spotted the hard to find piece of concrete that signified Bussman's and did some nifty paddle work to cut back across the river and banked. From the bank we could see the old footbridge but not much else than trees and landscape that made me think of snakes, ticks, and mosquitoes. We decided to trek through the underbrush even though we were in shorts and sandals. I am thankful that we did. It was a scenic spot and the growth made us feel like we were the first humans in the area for 20 years even though we weren't. We found the picnic area and decided to take a breather and dump all the rocks from our shoes. Near the picnic area were two old logs that someone had fashioned into "toilets". We decided to skip more in-depth exploration of those items and headed back further into the resort towards the two brick chimneys that are still standing. For me, it was easy to imagine "men of means" smoking cigars and drinking bootleg moonshine in this spot in the 1920's. We found the cabin, or the roof line of the cabin that Connor Watkin's describes and photographed in 2002 in his article titled "All Trips To The Beautiful Big Piney River Of The Missouri Ozarks" Other than Conor's description of the abandoned resort I can not find much history of the place. When was the place built? Who visited there? Why was it abandoned? Did it have ties to organized crime in St Louis? Do any pictures of it during it's glory days still exist? If you have any information or pictures of this place, please email me at snoopdorkydork71@gmail.com. We hung out at Bussmann's for a bit, gobbled down some sandwiches and did some swimming before we shoved off.
Our next stop was a gravel bar on the left just past Blue Springs. The sound of the spring rushing into the water would make you think that there is one heck of a stretch of rapids ahead if you do not know the river. There are some obstacles that could make this stretch tricky if you opt out of spending some time on the gravel bar.
Our next stop was the gravel bar underneath the Railroad Bridge. We spent quite a bit of time exploring the bridge. We partially climbed the ladder access to the top of the bridge but I am scared of heights so the mission was incomplete. We did walk back to the end of the trestle and got some great shots of the bridge. All the climbing, and hiking made us thirsty, and it was Terrie's birthday float so we floated to the Elbow Inn and climbed the stairs for a cold beer. The owner, Terry Roberson, was there so we chatted with him for a moment before he started preparing for that nights Bike Night. Bike Night is a tradition at the Elbow and is on Thursday nights. Free food and cold beer make this a popular place for most of our two wheeled friends in the area. After paying our tab we hiked back down to the canoe and shoved off, we figured we had another 30 minutes max, before reaching our take out spot. After the curve past the Elbow we noticed a very shallow area to our right so we headed left to skirt around it. We did not see the ridge line of rocks that popped up high enough from the water to swamp us. I was on the cooler in the middle and fared better than Terrie and Jeff. I did not even get my head wet, but saw Terrie completely underwater with the canoe coming straight down for her head. I reached out and grabbed her just before the canoe came down and started filling with water. Terrie was quick to react and started grabbing the canoe so we could flip the water out before it completely filled and Jeff made his way after the cooler. Giving up on the cooler he returned and we took stock of our supplies that had gone missing. Two coolers, various items of clothing and towels, a paddle, and the CD player. With my newly found "thuggin" CD. Soon after we remembered that Terrie's car keys were in the cooler. Luckily for us the cooler did not dump and we were able to retrieve it.
After beaching the canoe at Piney Beach only 10 miniutes after we had left the Elbow, Terrie and Jeff were able to swim out and retrieve the paddle as it bobbed lazily by. While they returned upriver to collect the Jeep, I chatted with a guy who knew Jeff. I can not recall his name but he told me that he had flipped his canoe in the exact same spot two days before and had just retrieved his car keys from the riverbed a few hours before we capsized. All in all it was another great day on the river and Terrie sported a huge bruise for a few weeks to remind her of that day. If you float the stretch of the big Piney between Elbow Inn and Piney Beach and see a shiny square box on the bottom of the river, grab it. The CD player will not work anymore, but I hope you enjoy that "thuggin mix" as much as I have. And beware of that rock!
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