We survived! After three days of paddling on the Devils River, we covered 48 miles of the most beautiful water in Texas. It is truly a spectacular river with crystal clear water, lots of fish and other wildlife, several class II and III rapids, and a class V+ waterfall.
Jo and I left Sunday afternoon with our friends Mychal and Marchello (and our dogs Rocky and Ellen of course) to our put-in site at Baker’s Crossing. We loaded up the kayaks in the truck and we were off. We camped that night on the river so we could get an early start, which couldn’t have been early enough as we paddled over 15 miles Monday against a stout 15-20mph headwind! To say the least, we were hurting that night! Thankfully Tuesday the weather was calm and we covered a lot of the river while still being able to make several stops to enjoy the beautiful water and scenery. Day 3 was more difficult paddling as our 18 or so miles consisted first of several shallow rapids in which we had to get out and pull the boats and second of miles of wide-open water as the river feeds into Lake Amistad. But nonetheless we pulled into Rough Canyon Marina at 5:30 Wednesday afternoon, feeling quite accomplished I might add.
So that’s the trip in a nutshell, but we thought we would share a few of the more memorable moments of the trip…
1) Me fighting off 2 raccoons and an opossum from the 50 lb food bag Mychal packed (we didn’t go hungry…thanks Mychal!) the first night at Baker’s Crossing.
2) Rocky freaking out during one of the more difficult runs and jumping out of the kayak trying to scale a huge boulder in which he failed therefore falling into the rushing water. No worries, he survived…barely.
3) Cello attempting to drain the water from the tortellini…we still had tortellini that night—don’t ask.
4) Paddling, paddling, and more paddling.
5) Me catching a handful of black bass, one about 4lbs, and a smallmouth bass that put up a tough fight.
6) Mychal and Marchello wearing each other’s pants. Woops!
7) Rocky chasing wild turkeys.
8) Weathering two nights of thunderstorms. The shows were both bright and loud!
9) Ellen swimming and swimming and swimming some more.
10) The buzzards that always seemed to be circling us.
11) And my personal favorite, passing through Border Patrol with a paranoid Italian.
Our contributions:
1) Mychal’s wonderful cooking
2) Cello’s excellent dish cleaning
3) My superb water pumping skills
4) And Joanna helping with all of the above
All in all, we had an amazing time. I always enjoy praising God for his creation and there is no better place than the Devils River, however ironic that might sound. It is truly a magnificent place.
