*Discretion, Valor, and pretty scenery anyway

Last week I almost went paddling on one of our uncharacteristically flowing hill country rivers. But it was flowing a little too much for chicken me.

However, Henry and a couple of friends had more valor than discretion, and they had a great trip. (You can read about it here.)

at least he had the discretion to wear a helmet!

Our friend Joline and I opted for more discretion (plus a comfortable lunch in Bandera) and just met the boys—of course they were all boys—at the takeout point. (See Joline relaxing at this flooded low water crossing in last Wednesday's Wordless post.)

So we got to see some of the spectacular Medina River scenery without risking life and limb.

Since I had come to the party decked out in paddling gear, I had no trouble hiking a little and wading a little upstream, getting to see close-up and personal that as high as the water was this day, it had been higher recently!

note the bent-over trees

debris along the riverside

But it was quite lovely and I'm so glad Joline had the idea to come and meet the guys instead of just heading home. We didn't even have long to wait.

My trek upstream offered all kinds of photo-opp material...

rock and cliffs

close-up of scenic cliffs...with desert varnish and without

rocks usually well up on shore

There was enough water that there were even little side channels and ponds...just enough to make way-finding not completely trivial—which of course is fun!

Safe, fun, and scenic...I'll take that for a Saturday any time.

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*From one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, Henry IV, Part 1, Falstaff's accurate quotation is: "The better part of valor is discretion." Not that Falstaff should normally be a role model, but this is good advice!

Wordless Wednesday: Beachfront property

Wordless Wednesday: The color purple

The tub's filling up!

Sorry I haven't been blogging lately. Got the summer lazies, I guess. But I have been doing some interesting things and will try to work up the energy to share some of this activity with you.

Weekend before last we went out to Canyon Lake to talk to our co-owners about some remodeling, and were pretty impressed by how much our recent deluges have changed the lake level. You can compare the photo above with some previous posts under the Canyon Lake label, to see what I mean.

Here's a picture from April of Henry standing at the head of what used to be our swimming "cove"...

...or what's left of it. 

Now, this is as close as I could get to taking a companion shot on our latest visit:

Yes, that's high water among the trees covering the path to the cove! I rather expect the "cove" doesn't even exist any more, as such, but have no easy way of verifying that now.

They're letting out a lot of water from Canyon Dam to offset the amazing inflows (so much that there's no toobing, only guided raft trips on the lower Guadalupe until further notice!). But it will take a while to drain out that much overage.

I couldn't get to the cove, but I was able to get to another section of the new shoreline, to further highlight the high water. 

Several years ago the lake level got higher than they thought it theoretically could, and did a lot of damage. I'm sure they're trying to avoid that by the large releases. Let's hope the good ol' Corps can keep the nice balance between too low and too high...historically, they've been pretty good at that!

Come hell and high water

Most of my readers know about the terrible flooding that happened while we were in Austin 10 days ago. Yes, it's good that the hill country lakes are filling back up again. And, it's also very nice to have our choice of paddle-able streams again...at least we will eventually.

But the costs were much too high. Not that Mother Nature ever asks what we want to pay. With rivers and rain, it just happens. And sometimes what happens is very bad. Even if there's not a hurricane or tropical storm involved, but just rain, rain, and more rain.

Henry and some friends might actually have been among the last paddlers to float down the Blanco River before that stream went murderously berserk, and he has some pictures from their paddle and also from the flood devastation. Check out his blog post here.

Last Saturday we knew we couldn't paddle, both from a safety standpoint and also just because it wouldn't seem right. But we wanted to do something to help. So we drove up to San Marcos, to the Pecan Park campground where we have often put in and taken out on various paddling outings in calmer times. 

There wasn't a whole lot a little old lady could do in the face of such giant piles of debris, but as the tireless chainsaw guys sawed away, there was almost always some smaller stuff that needed to be hauled to the burn piles or the saved-log piles. And it felt good to be doing something to show solidarity with the folks that have lost so much.

Here are some photos of astonishing remnants of the very high water that completely inundated the park and even got up into some of the buildings far from the normal streambed. (Although we didn't spend too much time up there and I have no pix.)

this was the best tool in the work party!

chainsaw guy at work...

...and on another pile...note the diesel smoke

after the chainsaw, before the hauling

an almost-unhooked hook-up...yes, that is a tree uprooted by water

a tree split by water

a hauling helper for scale...yes, these trees were uprooted by water

Finally, here is a more contextual shot of the tree I featured in close-up last Wordless Wednesday. In some ways the stripped trees are more powerful statements of the water's power than the downed ones.

In the end, "wordless" is how we all ultimately felt about this tragic event. Our hours of toil put only a small dent in the cleanup work that still needs to be done. And there are some remnants of the disaster that will probably never be made right.

Wordless Wednesday: water-stripped