New Year on the river

I partook in one of our paddling group's traditions for the first time yesterday—a New Year's Day float on the lower Guadalupe.

It was pretty nippy: high temperature in the city was forecast for the mid-60's. On the river I'm sure it wasn't quite that high, and there was a breeze. But fortunately Henry has given me presents of cold-weather gear, over the past year or so, sufficient to keep me toasty and dry.

The experience of the lower Guad is a different animal than our usual haunts on the upper. Although the river itself is very similar, the landscape on either side is almost suburban. It was kind of fun to see the different styles of house, many of which were much larger and nicer than I was expecting (and than we used to see along this stretch when we used to canoe it as 20-somethings). An example is on the left.

And the reason we can't paddle this stretch in warmer weather is that it's usually wall-to-wall tubes and (mostly) drunk toobers. But we generally prefer the more natural scenery along the less-developed stretched above Canyon Lake anyway.

However, in the winter you have the water to yourself. And in spite of the chill breeze, the weather was fine.


And there was "winter-clear" water...


... neat trees ...

... wildlife ...


... and scenery ...

Not to mention a couple of interesting rapids. Here's a short video of Henry going over Horseshoe Falls, where a few of our party went swimming. He managed it just fine, but was very glad to have brought along his kayak skirt. I declined to run it altogether, along with most of our group, opting for a rocky portage instead.

We finished off our practically perfect New Year's celebration stuffing ourselves at the Gristmill in picturesque Gruene, near New Braunfels. (The picture on the right was taken as we walked to our car after the dinner. Isn't that a wonderful, and wonderfully-decorated, old house!? The town's name is variously pronounced "Green" and "Grune" around here, as the actual German Ü is pretty hard for Texan tongues to manage.)

Ahhh! Fried catfish and mashed potatoes! Can't beat it! The only thing that would have made it better would be sitting at a table in the room with the fire, but the place was surprisingly busy for a winter afternoon:

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I apologize in advance for a blogging hiatus over the next week or so. I'm leaving Wednesday for a short ski vacation with my kids, and have tentatively decided to leave the laptop at home. Hopefully I'll return with some great snowy Rockies photos and some good stories.

Happy New Year to all!