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Our Route Summary
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What We SawWe paddled this stretch of the Colorado River, which winds some 500 miles through west and central Texas before flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, December 27, 2001. Rather than do a marathon of after Christmas shopping, we did a lovely paddle. We put in a 9:15 A. M after taking a few trips down the steep sandy bank under the bridge at Garwood to carry down our gear and drag down the canoe. Across from us, on a bridge pier, were hundreds of cliff swallow nests - the ones that look like little jugs. While their owners were vacationing in Central and South America, sparrows were using them for either their nests or to shelter from the cold wind. ( It was about 40 degrees when we put in.) My friend, Natalie, and I had decided to explore this section in a tandem canoe using or kayak paddles to maintain a good speed as we can get out of bad situations easier in a canoe than a kayak and with two fast paddlers paddling a tandem, we can really fly. Her goal was to research this section for possible paddling by Girl Scouts as there is a Girl Scout on this stretch of the river. We quickly went downstream exclaiming at each turn about the beautiful and varied scenery. Usually we had high banks on one side and a sandbar on the other. Sometimes we would have vegetated banks but often they were river cut banks and were either black or red or showed bands of various colors. The high banks usually had some trees on them and then open fields behind them but some were wooded. The low sides often had sandbars and sometimes beginning colonies of cottonwoods and river birch. Some of the scenery looked like east Texas rivers scenery but other areas looked more western. We did see many of the live oaks and other plant species, typical of the western part of the state. We also a few caracara, the Mexican Eagle that is only found commonly in south Texas as it is a Mexican species. There were many spotted sandpipers, doing their little bobbing walk along the edge of the water or flying weakly about a foot above the water. Mostly the river looked wild but we could see cow pastures, and sometimes structures at many places. We saw few houses until we were almost finished. |
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This stretch of the river has many huge sandbars,
some of them high enough above the water to be safe to
camp on. Natalie and I stopped soon after we started to
look through the gravel and larger rocks for fossilized
oyster shells. We didn't find any but I found a few
fossilized chips of wood. We stopped several more times
to eat and play and investigate the offerings and, at the
last site we visited, we found fossilized pieces of huge
backbones and other bones. We brought home 2 pieces of
the backbone bones. We also found beautifully colored
pebbles. Natalie selected a blue and black one to bring
home. We also ate lunches one and two on two the sandbars
and enjoyed both the view and sounds of the river and the
sandbar itself. When we were sure we would be out well before dark, we drifted for a period. Slow speed and the quiet allowed us to see turtles, woodpeckers, come real close to to a spotted sandpiper walking on a log, watch the vultures drifting over (they seemed to be gathering over us but then we found they were already coming in to roost) and enjoy the sounds of the river where it met downed trees. We also got a kick out of a heifer on a high bank that stared at us with the most quizzical expression on her face. She seemed to be saying, "what kind of fools would be on that cold water?" |
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The takeout was easier than it had looked but still
was steep and slippery. We had to work our way to a place
where cement was imbedded into the bank to be able to
lift our canoe out without falling in. We were really
glad we had put long bow and stern lines on the boat
before leaving. And we had tied all our gear in in
anticipation having to grab the bow and pull the kayak
almost straight up. Map - We used the one in the booklet published by the Lower Colorado River Authority. You can get it by calling 800-776-5252. On the web, see the put-in on the Topo Map then follow the river to Glen Flora. You can use the pipelines to see where you are. I think we didn't see the signs for the first one as both banks were high at this point. But then we saw 3 almost together and these are shown as one on the map. These have signs but the pipeline is under the river. The next 2 were on suspension bridges which were quite beautiful. Use topo maps to get some idea of which sandbars will be high enough to be safe and the distances between them. This would normally be a 2 day trip. |