With universities and schools getting back into session, we
decided to do one more family trip before elusive time was taken up with
studying.
Sept 3, 4, 5, and 6th we spent at South Llano
River State Park. Paddling a total of
16 miles, enjoying the sun, water, deer, wild hogs, and sounds of nature.
Daniel Zipprian drove down from Abilene, Matthew Zipprian
and Randi Derrick drove from Belton, and Katy, Chance, and I traveled from
Houston on Friday afternoon.
When planning a weekend trip out on water you pile all the
gear you can think of into the trucks, cars, and wagons. If time is pressing, you might run around
trying to remember all the items you forgot.
Everyone piles into the vehicles and you’re off…. Leaving the garage
door open. Which, I would like to thank
my neighbor for closing.
We took I-10 through San Antonio. After traveling 3 hours and having eighteen-wheelers buffet the
truck, I had a constant watch on the kayaks and canoe (yes, a single canoe I
had a weak moment when shopping.) If
you have ever driven on east side of San Antonio, I-10 has some major roadway
elevation changes (bumps) that when traveled at 70 mph can give your shocks a
workout. On one of these Katy noticed a
kayak was loose and we pulled over to tighten it down. We pulled back onto road and headed out
again only having lost a few minutes.
About a mile down the road, we had a rear tire do it’s impression of a
birthday balloon.
Here I would like to thank the unknown driver of the
eighteen-wheeler who slowed down in the adjacent lane, which allowed me to pull
over to the side of the overpass. Oh
did I forget to mention overpass. With
the passenger tire inches from the railing and only a foot on driver side we
began the task of changing tire. Well
once upon a time is was a tire; it currently looked like a pile of spaghetti
noodles. I found the remains of a
5-inch long, half-inch wide wood chisel inside the remains of the tire.
Even before I had the jack under the truck, a San Antonio
policeman had pulled up. Then a second
and before the tire was changed a 3rd car had arrived. (As far as I know, we were not shown on
“America’s Most Wanted.”) The policemen
were a great blessing in slowing the traffic, which allowed me to change the
tire without fear of becoming a bug on someone’s windshield.
Tire changed we headed off again… And arrived with no
further incident.
The river was low, around 100 CFS.
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Matthew and Randi
taking on the rapid.
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Here we watched a
friend of Daniel’s show
us how to run a
rapid
sideways.
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Saturday morning, we did the section from road crossing 2 to
country road 150. This took 2
hours. This section of the river had
the most rapids and was an excellent area for everyone to gain more experience
in handling class I rapids.
All pictures are courtesy of Chance and his water
camera. Some of the pictures we experimented
on with Photoshop to look like paintings/watercolors.
At lunch time we took a side trip to Kerrville (closest town
with a 16” tire for sale) and had a nice lunch.
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Pecan trees in water
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Size 15 outriggers |
Saturday evening, we did the section from the State Park to
Junction. There were a few places with
small rapids and more places with shallow water. In this section of the river we found a couple huge Pecan trees
lying in the water.
On Sunday, we again took the same routes as the day before
enjoying the peace and quiet of the country.
Matthew decided to borrow Katy’s 11 ft sit-on-top to do a little
fishing.
No, those are not outriggers on Katy’s kayak those are just
his shoes (size 15). He said the kayak
was very stable sitting in this manner.
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Here Chance is doing his
favorite past time
while kayaking.
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Daniel’s not “walking on water,”
he got out to pull everyone
through the low water area.
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Monday, a quick paddle
before heading back
to school.
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