Come high water

Well, we've had an interesting few days in South Texas! Our normally placid (and often almost dry) rivers have gone a little bonkers thanks to a series of severe rain events. Nothing like last Memorial Day (at least, so far), thank goodness, but enough to make paddling, when even possible, interesting, to say the least.

Readers familiar with the Guadalupe River above Canyon lake will notice right away in this photo, from Saturday, that there's a lot more water than usual. Henry figured that it was running about 5 times higher than when we went on the same stretch in February. That was enough to give me pause and think about not going, but I'm determined not to be a timid, stay-at-home retired person, so I sucked it up.

For the most part it was fine, and even kind of fun. The first big rapid we went through made me really wish I had a go-pro strapped to my head—you would not have believed the big water your usually cautious blogger plowed through!

And of course there was the gorgeous green scenery that I've written about before...

High water makes some of the river's challenging aspects actually easier to navigate, since it eliminates the need to steer around pesky rocks and even smooths out some of the rapids and falls. For example, as we neared our takeout at Guadalupe River State Park, there are usually a lot of these wonderful big boulders in the stream, but Saturday, we only saw a few. I still have trouble believing that so many of them were covered by the high water (and it's even higher as I write this! the rocks we saw are under water now!).

biggest of the GRSP boulders

I couldn't help but think the log on top of these almost-submerged
rocks was a resting baby dinosaur! doesn't that look like a brontosaurus neck?

Yes, some features are easier to manage at high water, but if you do get into trouble, the trouble is scarier, and unfortunately I had a personal experience to back that maxim up. It happened at the end of the rapid you can see one of my compatriots entering here (I was next in line)...

Stupidly, I ignored advice that had been given just moments before, when we had stopped for lunch. I celebrated getting through the rapid too soon, and lost concentration while that was still a dangerous thing to do. Next thing I knew, I was in the drink! And there for quite a while, too, since it was hard to find a place to stand and get back in my boat. Fortunately I had good, capable friends downriver who shepherded me over to the bank and sent me my kayak. 

The water was cool and refreshing, but being swept along by current that strong, even when not getting beaten up by submerged rocks and debris, is a little scarier an experience than I usually look for in my paddling excursions. If the group goes out again at this water level, I might just opt to go help with the shuttle, find a nice place to sit and read, and then meet up for dinner afterwards  .

But, as always, there is a lot of neat stuff to see on the river, best seen from on top of your boat instead of beside it. 

Like the limestone cliffs that are now sporting an unaccustomed coat of moss...

sorry for the blurry blotch...my camera had gotten a little wet!

...and other rocky features, like this overhang where usually empty creek joins the river...

(I wasn't able to take as many pictures as I would have liked, since the water was moving so fast. There were several neat waterfalls I tried to snap, but couldn't get anything good from my efforts. Henry was more successful, and here's his Flickr album of the trip, which includes an action shot of me just before my swim.)

We had an exciting paddle, that was close to being too exciting. But little did we know that just a day later things would really get hairy! We're pretty sure the campers here that were set for a fun long weekend at our put-in were going to have to evacuate on Sunday... (you can see some tents on the far left)

We hope they got out ok, with nothing but an exciting story to tell.