Saturday morning, December 3, the Rock Island Canoe Team launched the first overnight river trip of 2022. With an overcast sky, mild temperatures and a north wind on our backs, Bob and I canoed down the river. We were on a 20 mile reach of the Texas Colorado, from Columbus to Altair. The class 1 accesses at Beason's Park and the Altair Boat Ramp along and the gentle river made an easy reentry to overnight river camping.
After the excursion I looked over the pictures. The drab winter colors made me wish for a yellow canoe. Looking over those images one question bothered me. Why write about this trip? What experience was unique enough to share? Some of my day trips were more adventurous!
I knew this water, I had written of this length of river in A Weekend Well Spent. The largest variable was the unstable winter weather. New writing of this water would be something other than a report of numbers and statistics. So...
Winters along coastal Texas are special. Visiting north winds bring dryer and cooler temperatures, shorter days, longer shadows and migratory birds. A dry north breeze rolled the I-10 traffic sounds over pastures, through defoliating trees, under the overcast sky down to us on the river. Carried unusually long distances, these sounds were detectable at any point of the trip. Compared to urban settings though, the river was quiet.
Early in the trip Bob commented that the river seemed a seldom used resource. Further downstream on a sandbar he wondered aloud how many people canoed or kayaked this water. I looked about, noticing the quiet, cleanliness and lack human activity. I concluded "Not very many."
The low river and the late season made for an especially remote and isolated experience. That day we were the only people on the river. We saw no deer or feral hog but we found sign of wildlife on the sandbars.
An unprecedented number of bald eagles were sighted. Against the overcast sky they were challenging to confirm. We resorted to identifying those great birds by their posture, wing shapes and flight patterns. My observances are that bald eagles are tall and proud on the perch and they have distinctively shaped wings in flight. Their flight is purposeful, they do not fly for "fun." In these ways bald eagles are distinct from other birds.
This trip allowed me to brush up on primitive camping and basic fishing.
We made it to the campsite in plenty of time to set up.
Camp was simple.
Who doesn't enjoy a warm campfire on a cool December evening? Under the waxing gibbous moon we heard a barred owl. Those are my favorite birds to hear. You don't have to listen for them!
We woke up the next morning after daylight. I didn't know the time because this stretch of river is the Bermuda Triangle for cell phones. The batteries just don't last. To conserve power we kept the phones off much of the time.
In the winter morning calm we drank percolated coffee with our breakfast.
The river was down from the day before. Staged in the mid 9s and falling, our lightly loaded canoe rubbed over several sandbars and rock ledges. We lined the canoe on the back end of a small island between the 10 and 11 mile marks. When staged in the 11s these obstacles do not exist. Especially during a drought the weir dam below Altair preserves the last half of this piece of river. Without that man made feature the river would have been even lower.
We took notice of some of the plants on the sandbar. I believe the yellow flower below is a golden crownbeard.
Two of the above photos are of castor oil plants. We saw them increasingly on the second half of the trip. Some of them were tall or part of a colony. The purple stalks were interesting.
Sunday morning we left the sandbar as clean as we found it. That's my way of stewarding the land.
In a couple hours we landed at the Altair Boat Ramp and the river trip was over.
The trip was smooth to the point of uneventfulness. There were no surprises or excitement. A norther blasting down the river channel would have made a more dynamic trip, but the fair weather held. It seemed unnoteworthy. Certainly my other reports of this piece of river were sufficient.
The understated nature of the region (and this individual camping trip) belie the value of the experience. As the worth of this experience settled on me, I realized I am not accustomed with this gentleness. Even so I am thankful things went well, any trip can go awry.
I have no illusions of escaping the "rat race." Wilderness areas in Texas are few and small compared to the developed lands that lie under the plow and concrete or behind a barbed wire fence. Despite this, the riparian zone of the Colorado is remote and isolated. I call these zones "limited wilderness." Camping in this limited wilderness is a different experience than what the parks offer. It does not matter if it is "bucket list" material or not. On this trip I synchronized to the rhythm of the environment. I woke up with the sun, worked in the day, ate when hungry and slept in the dark. For a while the rigid patterns of society and urban settings fell aside.
This is my understanding, acceptance of the trip. If a weekend is what you have, make the most of it. The biggest obstacle will be your momentarily unplugging from the machine.
Not every trip can be epic, thrilling or challenging, or be in exotic and iconic locales. I have some so-called bucket list canoe trips planned for someday, but I'm not waiting for the vacation time, finances, weather and what ever else to line up. In the meantime, I hope to stuff 2023 with as many day and overnight canoe trips as possible. Maybe if things fall right I can make a couple three day/two night trips! If plans fall in unpredictable ways there are still new waters to explore.
Thanks for reading!
Bonus pictures below.
Good report. I wish I had been there. 2023, here we come!