Diamonds in the Sand

The last activity of the western loop was a canoe trip on the Buffalo National River in Arkansas. We drove up from Louisiana, through Tennessee and into Arkansas in a day, marveling at the bayous and cypress trees along the way.

We started our float trip the following day and rented our canoe from a local outfitter just off the river. The local who shuttled us to our put-in site with the canoe had been working on the river for 43 years and had seen the zinc boom and bust that had originally populated the river basin. Since the bust however, the town of Rush among others had become ghost towns, and the skeletons of buildings hidden back among the overgrowth looked like they’d been abandoned forever, until our shuttle driver told us about the person who had owned the building and why they left. It felt like we were talking to a ghost of the ghost town, though he seemed to be doing well for himself even with the lack of mining.

The river at this time of year was running pretty low, but having the current on our side made a heck of a difference in how fast we were making progress. The wildlife on the river rivaled Voyageurs with lots of bald eagles, herons, and deer along the shore and in the shallows. After a couple hours, we pulled up to a sandbar after traveling about five miles to make camp, and discussed the possibility of canoeing the last fourteen miles in one day rather than two. We mulled over it during dinner and enjoyed a fire on the sandbar while the sunset and darkness came over the river. Daddy long legs were our main company on the sand bar, crawling over anything and everything with their huge spindely legs. I’m not quite so fearful of that species of spiders, though they were large enough that I let Ryan flick them off the tent and such. 

As darkness fell, some raccoons chattered in a tree not far from camp, which caught our attention pretty quick, and about an hour later a loud howl came from beyond the trees. Still not sure what that was, but it sounded like a wolf (more likely a dog). It was as we were putting the fire out that I noticed bright glittering in the sand from the light in my headlamp. Looking around, I noticed the glittering diamonds were all over the sand. Huh. What are these things? I headed over to the nearest glittering jewel in the sand.

And that’s when I learned a fact I really didn’t want to know.

Apparently there’s a species of spider that, when LED lights hit them right, their eyes glitter like diamonds, and apparently these spiders burrow in the sand at Buffalo National River. They’re not incredibly big spiders, though there’s more substance to them than their clumsy neighbors the daddy long-legs. The other horrifying fact is that the brighter the glitter, the bigger the spider, and they did get to a size that I was a little more than uncomfortable with their presence. 

Ok! I told Ryan, let’s finish off the fourteen miles tomorrow.

And we did, easily. This canoe trip was not nearly as taxing as Voyageurs (no waves and headwind helps a ton), so we leisurely canoed downstream and made it to our car in about six hours. The only snag was attempting to avoid overhanging trees where additional spiders lurked. Clearly Lisa does not like spiders.

In any case, we actually really enjoyed the river and honestly we’d go back, so long as I just ignore the diamonds in the sand. Next time, we decided, we have to remember two things: beer, and fishing gear.