Gone Fishin'

With nothing but a cooler of food, a couple of notebooks, and some clothes that they didn’t mind dirtying up, three 417 staffers took off for a weekend of nature-loving, tree house–sleeping, fly-fishing fun at River of Life Farm.

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TIESHA: There are some very shiny cows on the way to River of Life Farm, which sits just south of Dora (a town southeast of Springfield). I mean, these cows look commercial-ready. I nod to the farmer who keeps his cows so gleaming and try to steady myself with eyes firm on the winding road ahead. In car-sickness denial, I believe that if I sit stiffly upright, nausea will not attack. Art Director Hope Brooks-Lovan notices I’m green in the face and is endearingly apologetic for the road, all while Senior Editor Katie Pollock is in the back seat doing something obnoxious like reading or juggling or whatever sort of activity non–car sick people get to do. It takes us a little more than two hours to get to ROLF (we had a slight detour), but we’re still pretty amped. We have a tree house cabin awaiting us and a guided fly-fishing trip on the North Fork of the White River the next day. It’s going to be a good weekend.

KATIE: Hope, Lifestyle Assistant Editor Tiesha Miller and I got just a little lost on our way to River of Life Farm. It wasn’t anything we couldn’t fix quickly, and there was a helpful older gentleman on a four-wheeler who steered us in the right direction with unclear but ultimately successful directions. (He used a cemetery that we never actually found as a landmark, and he described the road as “wiggly.”) If you are arriving from the north, be sure to pass the intersection of Eckart Berry Farm. Don’t turn left like we did. The website’s directions are a little unclear, but it’ll make sense as long as you ignore that intersection.

Manager Jim Torchia met us at the main office to give us the key to our cabin. He later told us that a new office is being built right now, and that’s a good thing. As it stands, the office is a little odd. It’s in the basement of owners Myron and Ann McKee’s home, which might not be unusual if it weren’t tucked away near the laundry room and a storage area. When we showed up at the office and walked in, we felt like we were somewhere we shouldn’t be, like if you accidentally take a wrong turn at Chili’s and find yourself in the kitchen. It was kind of a strange first impression of the place, but once we met Jim and were told where to find our cabin, it hardly mattered.

TIESHA: The entrance to the office really is strange, and you feel misplaced, but in a nice way it also says this place has no pretenses, no major frills; you’re at the river now. And that’s exactly what I was looking for. Jim is warm and friendly and eager to help. As an Oklahoma transplant, he loves the region, hikes the trails and is a good resource if you want to explore. The idea to make the cabins into tree houses was Jim’s suggestion to the owners. The McKees started with one regular non–tree house cabin in 1994 and have built about a cabin a year since. Now with eight cabins (six are considered tree houses) and four suites in the new lodge building, ROLF is one of the smaller outfits on the river in terms of water devices. On an average weekend, they’ll put out about 50 floaters but prefer people looking to enjoy nature. “We don’t cater to the party crowd,” the 44-year-old Jim explains. “We’re not snobbish about it. We’re just not for that kind of crowd.” Jim also explains that the name of the resort came from a Bible verse, and although the owners and operators are predominantly Christian, ROLF is not church retreat–specific. We arrange to come back to talk to Jim later after we’ve settled into our cabin and taken a hike on a trail that leads us to a spring on the ROLF property and then on to a lookout at Inspiration Point.

The Trek

KATIE: When the folks at ROLF tell you about the walk up to Inspiration Point, they should put the emphasis on “hike” and not so much on “view.” Maybe Jim threw that out, and we just didn’t catch it, but the 3⁄4-mile path up the side of the giant mountain was much steeper than expected. While Tiesha shot ahead at full speed to the top (inspired, maybe?), Hope and I trudged along behind, trying hard not to have heart attacks and die, which would have resulted in a long, fast roll to the bottom. The view at the top of the hill was pretty, but it was dwarfed by pain and agony. I’m only kind of exaggerating. We were not mentally prepared.

TIESHA: The hike is great encouragement to renew that gym membership. It was one of those really good walks, though, where you come back, cheeks red, feeling energized and ready to take a run. A nice warm-up of sorts. The lush surroundings are exactly what you’d expect from a river region in southern Missouri. At Inspiration Point, the lookout sits at the perfect intersection of trees and exposes the river bend below. It seems like a great place for a morningtime sit, when you can breathe in the cool air and solitude. I, on the other hand, sat on the bench at the top waiting for Hope and Katie, trying to figure out what these strange spidery, beetle-like bugs were that kept grappling onto my legs.

KATIE: Don’t forget bug spray. Ticks are plentiful here. You should learn to identify them, so you can seek and destroy rather than observe curiously. When Hope and I caught up to Tiesha at the top of the path to Inspiration Point, she was nonchalantly asking us what all those little bugs were. We made many a tick friend that weekend.

TIESHA: You learn something new every day. Apparently, I’d made it through 24 years of life without seeing or knowing exactly what a tick looked like. My “Oooh, what’s this little guy?” was instantaneously replaced with lyme-disease paranoia.

KATIE: The walk down from Inspiration Point is much less painful than the trek up, and it’s much faster. Instead of panting, we chatted. It was a lucky thing, too, that we made it down quicker. As soon as we got back to our cabin, there was a sudden downpour at River of Life Farm. It hadn’t looked like rain when we were outside 10 minutes earlier. There had been a slightly overcast mix of sunny and cloudy, and the sun stayed out for a while, even in the rain. Soon the wind picked up, bending the trees outside our deck and whipping them around, and the thunder became ominously loud.

We were hungry from our hike, so we stood in the kitchen listening to the weather beating on the cabin and devouring the snack of champions: giant pickles, roasted tomato Triscuits, cheddar cubes and iced tea. Mmm… salt. There aren’t places to eat near River of Life Farm. Instead, there are full kitchens in the cabins that you stock yourself. The Tree Top Loft cabin had a few dishes we could borrow, a refrigerator, a stove and oven and a microwave. All the appliances looked fairly new, and we had plans to take advantage of the charcoal grill outside later at dinnertime. Hope’s analysis: “I think this is cute as a button.” There is a stack of books and games and a few Christian movies in the loft. We took advantage of the playing cards later that night, and I was eyeballing the Scrabble board.

TIESHA: Scrabble!

KATIE: We really like Scrabble. The walls and lofted ceiling are made of knotty pine panels, and the main-floor bed and loft rails are custom-made from carved logs. I felt kind of enveloped in wood, and it was pleasant. It was like James and Giant Peach, only with wood instead of a fruit pit. 417 and the Giant Log. The cabin has a very lodge-y feel, with a wood-burning stove, a full kitchen and dining table, a cozy rocking chair, a soft microsuede sofa and two cute little blue wooden chairs. Outside on the deck is a glider bench and two wicker chairs and a table.