Table of Contents

Meeting Announcement

A Note from Jo Anne

GASP!

Luling Paddling Trail

Caroline Street Gulley

Trip Reports

Rick Brunson: Armand Bayou

Natalie Wiest: Boquillas Canyon

Cecilia Gill: Women's Paddle

Christy Long: Buffalo Bayou

Natalie Wiest: Burnham's Ferry

Natalie Wiest: Cedar Lakes

Christy Long: San Marcos Cleanup

Classifieds

Upcoming Trips

Bob has led several historically-interesting trips on the Colorado and I was pleased for once to have my schedule align with his and join him and 12 others on the search for Burnham’s Ferry crossing. From Houston Canoe Club, that included Dana Enos, Richard Enos (not related to Dana), Ken Anderson, Christy Long, Eloy Arredondo, Jim Arthur (Bob’s bro), Janis Kmeic, and from La Grange, Margie McKee, Gary McKee (with the Texas Archaeological Commission), Larry and Ken Ripper (Larry is a Volunteer Archaeological Steward and keeper of many nice historical maps of the area), and Carolyn Skopik. We were a mixed bunch of tandem and solo canoes, and recreational kayaks.

We paddled 13 miles of the river south of La Grange and north of Columbus. Thanks to Bob’s contacts, our put-in and take-out were both on private property, down long dirt roads, through cow pastures, and into quick sand. Yessirree Bob, quick sand, and I was the first one to find that out for sure. Only took 6 men to push my car out; when Eloy’s truck found the same pit, I was able to push him out by my very own muscles. Others, seeing our plight, gunned on through the sand and still others, smart enough to stay out of it, waited uphill. The return, now uphill through the trap, was even more funner. Thankfully Janis had a Jeep with full pulling capability, so she pulled out first the full-sized Chevy pickup; then Dana’s only slightly smaller truck. Imagine my trepidation after seeing those two in the sand up to their bellies, and now thoroughly churned up and soft to a depth of at least 15”. Luckily the old wind-er-out-in-first-gear approach worked and the little green car emerged to traverse the cowpies and run the shuttle. By 11 a.m. we were almost ready to put on the water.

From Bob’s notes, our trip took place 170 years and 6 days after the Texas Army crossed the Colorado River at Burnham's Ferry in its Runaway Scrape, just ahead of Santa Ana’s army. Victorious at the Alamo, Santa Ana was to pursue the Texans to the mouth of the San Jacinto River near Houston. To slow the advance of the Mexican army, Burnham’s Ferry, and his house as well, was burned to the ground. With no trace of the ferry since its demise in 1836, relocating the crossing is difficult. In addition to that, the river has moved many times in the intervening years and at present the crossing and ferry location is some 400 yards west of the current river path. Larry Ripper showed us a succession of maps he used to determine the likely crossing area; he and Gary McKee were fairly certain of the location we noted more than halfway down our 13 miles of river paddle.

The river was Class I at best and there were no major obstructions. The most maneuvering that was required was to find enough water to float our boats although thankfully no place required getting out and pulling the boats. Our lunch stop was on a nice little island that we shared with a herd of about 10 Hereford cows, several of which meandered around our lunch stop and between our boats to wade back to the pasture whence they came. At least one of them seemed to be considering taking a kayak for a spin but luckily for all concerned, decided against the trial run.

Janis made a very interesting find at another of our stops – a perfect projectile point that Gary thought dated back to native American hunters almost 6000 years ago. The history of humans on and by the Colorado is of long standing!

It was a near-perfect day to be on the river, cool enough to make paddling comfortable, but warm enough no one got cold. The wind mostly cooperated except for a mild upstream breeze near the end of the trip. Miles of bluebonnets in full bloom lined highway 71 to Ellinger, and more wild blooms went even to the banks of the river. Kingfisher birds were much in evidence, and hundreds of ducks. We were off the river by about 4 p.m.; Bob and Jim, Eloy, Christy, and Dana camped overnight by the takeout to get full enjoyment out of the beautiful countryside. Thanks for putting a wonderful trip together, Bob!

River gage at Columbus (USGS 08161000), 11.0 ft; at La Grange (USGS 08160400), 600 cfs or 3.5 ft.