On June 6th, three members of the Houston Canoe Club participated in the Neches River Rendezvous event in Lufkin, Texas. This was the 12th annual edition of this event, designed to promote outdoor wilderness adventure in east Texas. The three Houstonians present were HCC trip organizer Ken McDowell, along with Joe Coker and John Rich.
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Location map |
The location of the river section is about a 2½ hour drive northeast of Houston, on Highway 7, between Crockett and Lufkin. Either Highway 59 or Interstate 45 can be used to make this drive pass pleasantly.
(Click on the thumbnail images to see a full-screen version.)
The event brought 312 people out to canoe a scenic 10-mile section of the Neches River, which winds its way through the Davy Crockett National Forest. There was an entry fee of $30 per canoe, and that money bought you and your boat; a shuttle ride to and from the river, two T-shirts, and lunch after coming off the river.
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| Getting started |
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Starting times were staggered in half-hour increments for groups of paddlers, so that the entire mob wouldn't be dumped onto the river all at once. The starting times ranged from 7:00 am to 10:00 am. After showing up at the Highway 7 rendezvous spot, we found the registration tent and picked up our wrist tags and T-shirts. From there, you bring your boat, gear and yourself to the appropriate tent labeled for your starting time. A steady stream of boat trailers and personnel van shuttles would pull up, load up and head out. The wait was short, and workers loaded the boats for you. All you had to do was climb into a van to be whisked to the put-in site, and your boat would already be there waiting for you.
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Close-up road map |
The shuttle to the put-in location traveled over dirt Forest Service roads, the numbers of which do not appear in online maps. You need a Forest Service map to follow those roads. And the numbers can change for the same road, depending upon which side of the river you are upon. But, since others were doing the driving for us on this trip, we didn't have to worry about getting lost.
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| Aerial view |
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From this aerial photo of the Neches River, you can see that it is surrounded almost entirely by National Forest, with no development on the shoreline other than a few patches of pasture land.
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Canoe stack |
Upon arriving at the put-in location, the first thing you notice is this pile of canoes, stacked up like firewood, ready for people to rent. "I'll take that one on the bottom row, in the middle, please!"
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| Put-in site |
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The put-in site is a one-lane Forest Service bridge, with a dirt boat ramp alongside. Some green mesh had been placed on the riverside ground, to provide firm footing and to keep down the mud on your shoes. The waterline contained a row of boys, which I dubbed "boat wranglers". They would snag the boats as they came down the ramp, pass them down to the riverside level bank next door, and help hold them steady while the occupants climbed aboard. A lady with a clipboard checked your registration number. In this photo (left, above), you see Joe Coker ready to push off and head downstream.
And with that out of the way, the Houston contingent of Ken, Joe & John, pushed away from the shore and the hordes of people, and began to enjoy some quiet river time.
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| On the river |
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Ken heads off in his
brand new honey-
yellow kevlar canoe
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Joe and Ken pass through a giant strainer |
The water level was low, and the flow rate was only 100 CFS, but the river is fairly narrow and there was some current to push you along. There were a large number of trees down in the river, and quite a few of them did require some maneuvering to zig-zag around them.
I was surprised that with this huge number of boaters on the river, that someone hadn't gone through here with a chainsaw doing some preparatory work to reduce the hazards. And it was obvious that a great many of the people on the river were only novice canoeists.
The source of all the trees in the river was the usual - simple riverbank erosion undercutting the root system, to the point that the tree falls in. And since this section flows through a National Forest, there are plenty of trees along the riverbank to fall victim.
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| River logs |
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Exposed tree roots |
Not only was there a wide variety of boats, there was also a wide variety of people inside the boats: kids by themselves, fathers, mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, with their kids and grandkids, couples, young and old.
They were all friendly, pleasant, cooperative and having a good time. One of the unusual match-ups was this family of four, all riding on a single small kayak. In some boats, even the family dog got in on the act!
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| Four-in-one |
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Woof! |
The river route was also well-organized, with mile-marker signs along the way, so you could track your progress. There were several people camped out on riverbank overlooks with mobile radio set-ups and portable radio antennae, that served as checkpoints to call for help if anyone encountered any trouble. And there were also several men in motorboats along the way, also ready to jump into action to assist anyone in need.
Gosh, these east Texas youngsters learn some great outdoor skills while growing up out here. These boys know how to walk on water!
Well, okay, actually, there was a log about one-inch underneath the surface of the water, and the boys were standing up on top of it, which just made it look like they were walking on water.
Here you see Ken getting an assist over the log from the boys, who readily jumped out of their own boats to volunteer to help a string of others get across.
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| Walking on water? |
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Ken |
The next bridge you see on the river is the Highway 7 take-out point, where there is a paved boat ramp.
The boats piled-up at the take-out, as they arrived faster than they could be removed. Young boat-wranglers were present here too. The delay was that everyone seemed to want to pull their boat in sideways, so they could step out without getting their feet wet. And that took up all the available non-muddy space, so that no one else could get in nose-first. And then on top of that, instead of immediately carrying the boats away to the grass next, they would proceed to untie everything and unload them right there too. A little more efficiency could have been conducted here, but what the heck, who's in a hurry? Another lady with a clipboard stands vigilant here to check you off the river, so they can keep track and make sure nobody's missing.
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| Take-out ahead |
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The take-out |
Once off the river, you head back to the original registration site, where a free lunch is waiting for you of hamburgers, baked beans and... peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream! A prize drawing was held based upon your meal ticket number, but I didn't get to see what was awarded.
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Beach balls |
In the parking area, I got a laugh out of this creative use of beach balls in a boat tie-down technique.
In summary, I had a good time seeing a stretch of river that is rarely traveled. But this was my first experience with a large organized event. The mob of humanity was definitely different, and I think I prefer to share the outdoors with a smaller group.
And as well-organized as things were, being the old grump that I am, I still had a few complaints: A large number of the people helping out, probably volunteers, apparently do not have familiarity with canoes and kayaks. On one shuttle, my boat was not secured properly on the trailer rack with the rubber bungee cords, and I stepped in to tighten things up and do it properly. The kid boat-wranglers actually got in my way, and prevented me from maneuvering the way I wanted to. Some helpers were dragging boats up on the rough asphalt boat ramp, abrading the bottoms. And others would pick up the front end of sit-atop kayaks by the handle, threatening to tip-over the occupant still aboard. Although there were plenty of eager helpers, you had to be assertive if the kind of help they were providing wasn't what you wanted. But then, I'm an independent old cuss who likes doing everything myself, except for when it comes to lifting my 80-lb. battleship up on top of a vehicle. "Help!" And there were plenty of people on hand willing to help me do that too.
All in all, it was a pleasant experience and a great day on the water.