San Marcos River
Labor Day, 2013
by Harmon Everett
Terry Herdlicka and Christy Long are planning on competing in the Texas Water Safari next June, and have been practicing for a month or so now. Part of getting ready for the Safari is to travel the different parts of the rivers ahead of time, and get an idea of what they look and feel like, so when they paddle the whole 264 miles from San Marcos down to Seadrift during the race, they have an idea of what to expect. Especially since a lot of the time they will be paddling parts of it in the dark. We planned to paddle from City Park to Scull’s Crossing on Saturday, from Highway 90 west of Luling, to Palmetto State Park on Sunday, and then from Staples Dam, to Fentress on Monday.
We started from Houston after work on Friday, but of course, it took hours to even get to Katy. We made it to San Marcos River Retreat and set up camp. It was fairly empty. Tom said that it was really too hot for most tenting folks, and his Boy Scout customers didn’t really start up until middle of September, when it got cooler.
The plan was to start bright and early Saturday morning from City Park and go upstream to Spring Lake and see where the portages were around the falls from there to the San Marcos river, and then head down through Rio Vista and look at the portages at Thompson’s Island, and Cummings dam to take out at Scull’s Crossing. What with going upstream to Spring Lake, that would make it about a 10 mile day.
I forgot my paddles. Everybody else was putting their boats in the water and I looked around, and I don’t have paddles – not my regular paddle, and not my spare. Hmmm. They must be left in the car that we just left at the take out. So much for starting early. The rest of the group – Joe Coker, Terry Herdlicka, Christy Long, and Dave Jacobs headed upstream to look at the lake, and I headed back down to Scull’s to retrieve my paddles. They said they would wait for me to get back. Sigh.
I got back with my paddles just about the same time they were returning from upstream, and we proceeded down to Rio Vista. Christy decided they could run the drops. They went through the first one just fine, but shipped a lot of water, so much so that by the time they got to the second drop, they were pretty much submerged, and the water sloshed around and they capsized and the current swept the boat around and pinned it half way out into the second drop.
We pulled it out, and I bumped out the severe crease in the hull. It didn’t appear to be too badly damaged, so we kept going. They made it through the second and third drops without much trouble and we proceeded to Thompson’s Island.
Joe and Christy and Terry and I portaged over the concrete apron that is on the left side of the rock/dam falls, while Dave showed off by going over the falls. He had so much fun, he did it twice. Yee-Ha!
If you haven’t heard, on summer afternoons along the San Marcos, there are thousands of people drifting down stretches of the river on inner tubes. The first stretch is from City Park to the take-out just at Rio Vista. The second stretch is from just above Tom’s place down to Don’s.
There are several outfits that put in and take out along the way, and shuttle buses run constantly taking tubers and tubes from the take-out back to the put-ins. Thousands. Most of them drunk. Many of them with really loud boom boxes. It isn’t your expected outdoor experience. It is very much more like an unchaparoned, boozy trip around Disney’s Lazy River, with competing boom boxes, and without any available outhouses.
We stopped at Tom’s place, and picked up John Ainsworth, who Christy knew, and he paddled with us down to Scull’s. Saturday, at least, there were occasional checkpoints set up by the County Sheriff, where Deputies were scanning the crowd as they passed, and occasionally spot checking for minors in possession, and ones that were really so drunk they were a danger to themselves or others.
Terry having a good time
Most of the tubers, however, were pretty mellow, and were having a good time and willing to share. Going through Old Mill, a bunch of them were hung up right on the right hand wall that is slowly collapsing into the river, as Christy and Terry were trying to go through. It is easier if you think of them as self-propelled bumpers and don’t worry too much as you go by.
Christy having fun!
The take-out at Scull’s has changed. The property owners have put up barbed wire around the flat area on river right before the bridge, and the only available take-out is right on the bridge abutment and concrete apron. It is a real challenge, and not very fun. The little road stub on river left is still available to re-assemble and load your boats on your cars, but getting to that point is a struggle.
Saturday night was hot and muggy, and both Terry and I left our lunch bags out, with some food still in them. The raccoons got both of them. I retrieved Terry’s lunch bag pretty much undamaged, but without some of the food. My lunch bag was pretty much shredded. Ahh, I needed a new one anyway.
Also, we got to experience the delightful crazy ants. We had the fan on in the tent, so the electrical cord went through a little space at the end of the zipper for the door. Hundreds of crazy ants followed that cord through the door and all over the tent. And all over us. Several times that night I woke up to ants crawling all over me and had to scrape them off and smoosh them. Thankfully, they typically don’t bite. John had fire ants get into his trailer, and woke up with fire ant bites all over his arms, but evidently crazy ants are driving out the fire ants, and the crazy ants by and large don’t bite. They just are everywhere, by the thousands.
On Sunday, we travelled down to Luling and put in where 90 crosses the San Marcos west of town. We shuttled Christy’s car down to Palmetto State Park where we planned to take out. The State Park charged us a very reasonable $3.00 to park there for the day.
Christy and Terry practicing their cornering.
We wanted to make 20 miles by mid-afternoon, and get to see this stretch of the river by daylight. During the Texas Water Safari, Terry and Christy will be paddling much of this stretch in the dark, and it includes both the pretty much totally collapsed rock dam called Son-of-Ottine, which is essentially a nasty rapids, and the NOT collapsed, but totally undermined and seriously dangerous Ottine dam. The picture doesn’t do it justice, but ALL the water is going UNDER the dam. It just feels like it could suck you in and chew you up and spit you out in little bitty unrecognizable pieces and I don’t even ever want to get close.
There is a pretty big sign a couple hundred feet upriver from it – but who is going to see it in the dark after paddling 58 miles non-stop? This is dangerous with a capital D.
The portage is up a steep bank of sand and mud and cowpies. Then drag the boat for a while, and then drop the boat down another steep slope and get back on the river. Oh, and make a couple of trips with your gear. Here was the point I recognized that Christy and Terry had become faster than I could paddle, and I was worn out.
It was a lovely day paddling and we made it to Palmetto State Park and packed up and headed back to San Marcos River Retreat.
Monday morning, Dave Jacobs rejoined us, and Debbie Snow and Mike Pollard showed up to paddle the section from Staples Dam to Fentress. I was pretty beat up from Sunday’s paddle, so I decided to sit this one out.
The first thing they did was portage the Staples dam, and I watched them head off down the river on another gorgeous day. By all accounts it was a great trip. They got to see buzzards eating a dead cow and other wonderful scenery.
Portaging Staples Dam.
Terry and Christy below Staples Dam. Photo by Debbie Snow,
When I got back to camp, a large part of the tree that Christy had camped under had fallen, soon after we had packed up and left. It fell right about where her kayak had been. And it was another wonderful weekend!
See you On The Water!
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The author, Harmon Everett
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