We moved our annual Freeze trip to the Illinois River in Oklahoma to the Guadalupe River. We camped 3 nights at Guadalupe River State Park. Along on this trip were Jacob and Zachary and some of my DDRC compatriots.
Saturday Jan 16
Put In: State Park
Take Out: Rebecca Creek Rd
Distance: ~12 miles
After some rain then some tasty breakfast burritos and packing a lunch we got the rest of the DDRC crew moving to the put in. The shuttle was a long drive round trip of about 80 minutes. The take out at Rebecca Creek is a nice access for loading and unloading only. You must park your vehicles at the top of the hill. We got on the water about 11:30am, late but before noon. This is a really pretty river with clear cool moving water. The river is lined with large cypress trees with many turns and some nice Class 1&2 rapids. The run to Nichols landing is only about 5.5 miles with pretty easy float. Once you pass Nichols landing there are 3 nice drop offs which are really not runnable at low flows.
The day started off pretty cool then warmed up followed by a cold front moving through and stiff north winds. We came to rope swing and Zach decided to go for it. Yes, it is January and 50 something out but then again my boys have no shortage of testosterone. About 1pm we stopped for lunch on river left at a beautiful gravel bar just past the Spring Branch road bridge. After lunch we came to a drop off that you could run far right or far left. I chose left as it was long and slow but very narrow. Jake and Zach were the only ones to go right and both flipped over for a swim. Once they got back in and moving they were cold and the north wind combined dropping temps put them into shivers. I made them keep paddling to keep the body heat going. We stopped briefly at another drop off to wait no the rest of the DDRC group and they really started the shivers then. We arrived at Rebecca Creek take out about 5:10 pm. This made for a long day and if we run this section again I want to be on the water by 9am, especially in winter months.
Dinner was potluck that night, I made chili and Bryan served up Beef Burgundy, Jaws made a cake in his Dutch Oven, others brought appetizers.
Sunday Jan 17
Put In: FM3351
Take Out: State Park
Distance: ~8 miles
This was a shorter shuttle and Bryan Jackson elected not to paddle due to a sore back so he drove us to the put in and dropped us off then took my truck back to the state park. We got on the water about 10:50. The water was much clearer than that downstream and the river a bit narrower with more cypress trees, more scenic. The river was also moving along a little better clip. We stopped promptly at noon for some lunch at a gravel bar on river left. After lunch we settled into a leisurely paddle with some beautiful weather and scenery. We made the state park by 1:30. After getting back to the camp we all cleaned up a bit. Dinner that night was baked potatoes, green beans, and steaks. We packed the next morning and were on the road by 8am and made Plano by 12:40pm.
SYOTW,
Earl