[Almost] Winter on the River

Finally! I did something blog-worthy! After a very lazy and uneventful period centered on the Thanksgiving weekend, we went winter paddling yesterday. Although the weather was anything but winter-like, with a high temperature near 80. Like those Christmases spent in shorts that so often seem to happen around here.

In spite of the good weather, it was a small paddling group, and I was left by myself during the shuttle run from Edge Falls to Guadalupe River State Park (on the river of the same name). Lots of time for picture-taking. And the clear blue sky was matched by the clarity of the water, which gave me lots of inspiration.

I love looking through clear water to see what's on the bottom. I think it might stem from an early childhood experience with glass-bottom boats in Florida (you can see some pictures from that early '50's trip here). At any rate, even the pile of debris on the upstream side of the Edge Falls bridge was photogenic when you could see below the water surface.

And, without the sun reflecting off the water, would you even be able to tell which part of this gravel bar was dry and which was wet?

We have our normal winter drought to thank for this clear water. No rain = no runoff = no silt = clear rivers.

The Edge Falls put-in is one of my favorites, since and it provides not only great scenery but some comfy places to sit and snooze. And I always have to wait on the shuttle. Just behind the big tree to the left of the small channel in this photo there's a root-encircled, almost campsite-sized bower, where I have spent some relaxing waiting time before.

Of course my solitude was eventually interrupted by the return of the shuttlers and we were off.

The river really does exhibit a distinct beautyin this season, with the low winter sun and the trees' infrastructure almost completely exposed to view. Don't you think?

We mammals weren't the only critters enjoying this sunny day. There were turtles on several logs along the way, we saw a fair number of birds, and then there was this little fellow, who hopped onto a log right next to where my boat was moored at our lunch stop.

He reminded me of his cousin, who hitched a ride with us on the Colorado last month, although this guy wasn't as pretty and green. But he did sit still for several photos, of which I think the one on the left is the best.

This short stretch of the Guadalupe probably doesn't make the must-do list for adrenaline-seeking kayakers, but that's really ok with me. I'm more in favor of nice little trains of ripples like this one, so I find this portion of the river, at this water level, just my cup of tea.

You can just see Henry, who does prefer a bit more adrenaline in his paddling, in the photo above. He's decided that there wasn't enough water for his more exciting way of negotiating this particular rapid, which involves squeezing between the two big boulders on the far left in the background.

A great scenic plus when you paddle down to the state park is a very photogenic series of boulders, close to the take-out point. Here's one of the most spectacular, with Reiko and Claire kindly providing some scale.

Scenic as it is, we all agreed that we're glad not to have been around when this guy cut loose from the cliffs on the left. I'll leave those adventures for the adrenaline-junkies, thank you very much, and just enjoy the aftermath.