Participants: Bruce Bodson, Bob Naeger, Monica Gries, Rick Monk
Bruce's Photo Album
Water Bodies: Navasota River (SH 6 to the Brazos) and the Brazos (Navasota Confluence to Washington on the Brazos SHP)
This was the second year of the revived Hidalgo Falls Texas River Festival and as part of the event they included me leading a river trip down the Navasota River from SH 6 to the Brazos and thence to Washington on the Brazos State Historical Park.
Our group had four people in four boats, including Bob Naeger and I from HCC, and Monica Gries and Rick Monk who usually paddle with Greater Houston Kayakers Meetup Group. This was Monica’s fifth time on a kayak, but since her fourth time had been a third-place finish in women’s short kayak on the Buffalo Bayou Regatta she was more than up to the trip.
The Navasota was a very pleasant little river, with a number of rocky riffles, some tight turns, and a few minor obstructions to contend with. No one had any difficulties with boat management on the trickier parts. We took a couple of breaks on sand/gravel bars and found that these locations had an abundance of freshwater mussels, alive and old valves. We found threeridge, mapleleaf, pimpleback, yellow sandshell, Tampico pearly mussel, fragile papershell, and Texas fawnsfoot.
Since the river channel is relatively narrow, and doesn’t have a lot of point bar and mid-channel habitat we did not see much evidence of shorebird migration until we got out to the Brazos where we saw spotted, western and least sandpiper, killdeer, and greater and lesser yellowlegs. There was also a variety of raptors, and lingering/resident neotropical migrants.
The take out, if such it could be called, was at Washington on the Brazos Park. Even by Brazos standards, it was problematic. The shoreline between the protective breakwaters at the park was a mud hole. Behind that the bluff was pretty much vertical and covered with poison ivy and particularly irate fire ants. It took us over an hour to get the four boats up to the level of the park grounds and there were casualties to the fire ants, plus I am still recovering from the poison ivy.
Despite the problems at the take out the trip was a lot of fun, and I really like the idea of a take out at Washington on the Brazos; it just needs to be cleared and perhaps sculpted a bit to make it easier for people and boats to ascend the bluffs.
The rest of the River Festival included a talk by West Hansen about his paddling adventures, a panel of river experts discussing paddling various Texas rivers, and lots of opportunities for training and learning about the geology and biology of the river. It is really a great event and I highly recommend that you make sure and check it out next year!