The waters in the Frio River are probably a little colder than some other streams, even on a warm July 4. But what's really neat about this usually-not-paddleable stream is how clear the water is.
On Independence Day, we met in Concan for lunch before taking off on our paddle.
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| view from Neal's in Concan |
You can't tell so much from this picture, but the river right in town was practically lousy with toobers. However, after our launch we blew past them pretty quickly and went on down the river.
Here's our Dear Leader (note patriotic emblem) as we floated past the gauge whose readings told us there was enough water...
...and Henry providing foreground scale for some of the lovely cypress trees and impressive rocks. (He also had some flags on his boat.)
Of course, enough water to paddle also means a fairly strong current. Which I discovered the hard way when I was a little careless launching after our snack break. It took a little while and some slightly scary floating to get back on my kayak.
At least there wasn't as much water as there obviously had been, and recently:
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| floated debris from the recent high water |
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| yes, that's a CAR left upside-down on the bank from flood waters |
But all in all it was a fun and refreshing paddle. Since it's a rather long drive out this way, we planned for two days of paddling. In between we had a cookout and slept at Joline's place near Leakey. Here's a view of a Frio fork from her balcony:
Next time I'll share some more of the underwater shots that I teased with in
last Wordless Wednesday's post. The clear water simply made lots of underwater snapping irresistible!
