Hill Country Water when It’s UP!
By Donna Grimes

The hill country is my favorite place to paddle. Here the creeks and rivers are clear, the rapids fun, and each turn offers a new adventure. Of course, some rivers I like better than others, and my favorite is the Medina River. This is a small, twisty river with a tree canopy that expands across the river creating a water tunnel, like a lover’s lane.

(the Medina River with its beautiful tree canopy)

Normally, we like to paddle these waters when the cfs is around 500, but the past few years, we have been lucky if its been 300 – often 100 and almost unpaddleable. The Medina last year was 53 cfs. Forget it!

But not this year! With good rains in the hill country, the water has risen. Before I knew it was going to be high, I posted a kid’s paddle in the hill country. Bill and I like to attend the annual Kerrville Folk Festival and have always paddled during the day and listened to great music at night. This year we were having his niece (9) and nephew (8) visiting and last year took them canoeing and they LOVED it. So….why not this year.

Others responded to my posting – with kids, but then the rain started and the river rose. I cancelled out on those with kids other than the ones we had. Now, we had worked with them last year on paddling strokes – both kayak and canoe, when the water was low and they did great.

I was concern when a week before the trip, the Guadalupe was 20,000 cfs and the Medina 10,000. However, water drops quickly in the hill country and by the time we paddled on Saturday, June 2, the Guadalupe was 1,470 at Spring Branch. High….but…maybe not too bad.

On the trip we had, Bill & Donna Grimes, Avery (9) & Henry (8) Devault, Christy Long, Debbie Snow, Janice Kweic, and Louis Aulbach

Our favorite play spot (Rock Pile) was essentially washed out . We ran the kids through it in our boats first and let them see the line, then let them take turns running the stable yak board through. What a great time! They wanted to do it time and time again.

Further down the river, we came to Travertine Falls – a favorite spot to stop and climb the falls. The size was twice normal size.

(Christy in front of Travertine Falls)

( Janice Kweic enjoys the splash from the refreshing falls)

Then the next play spot – Dog Leg. The river right drop was totally under water, but the left was fast, ending by the big rock where a large standing wave swallowed many boats. We stopped and watched maybe twenty boats turn over there. One even was torn in half. (The red kayak is pushing the half of a red canoe down to the take out)

However, our two little troupers did great as they ran it first with Uncle Bill, and then several times by themselves. How proud they were of themselves.

( Avery adroitly paddles the yakboard away from the hole)

The next day was the Medina. The water was much lower – only 750 cfs compared to the Guad’s 1,470 cfs. BUT…this is a very different kind of river. It has its beauty – the tree canopy and the crystal clear water and slow spots. But, it has more dangers: many narrow turns and twists with potential for boat-holding strainers. Because of this fear, we worked out an order for getting the kids down this one safely. Bill always carried one child with him and the other paddled the yak board followed by two good paddlers. Usually I lead and Christy and Debbie with their fast little kayaks follow the novice paddler.

However, best laid plans….right? Just a quarter mile down the river, Henry (8) didn’t make the eddy turn tightly enough, was being pulled down into a strainer. The boat flipped, Bill and I went after him, and we ended up with two people in the water and the kayak paddle lost somewhere in the strainer. Shortly after, a wrong turn put Bill with TWO kids in his boat into a closed passage. We were lucky because the blockage could be broken down before the boat got sideways and tipped…with two kids in the water.

With the lost kayak paddle, using the yak board efficiently was jeopardized until Christy offered her expensive graphite paddle to the kids and took their stubby little canoe paddle. The kids LOVED this lighter easier-to-manage paddle, but Christy suffered.

We made it to the take out. The kids had a great time in spite of the turnover but I will never take novices down water at this level ever again. There could have been serious consequences and it’s just not worth it. When the water is lower, I’d gladly take anyone and let them learn with the challenges presented here, but not at high water.