Water at Last!
Due to some nice rain showers, two of our favorite local rivers were finally running at levels sufficient to entice paddlers. On Saturday, I joined the Saturday Paddlers on the Guadalupe River. We put in at a private park a short distance upstream of the Gruene bridge and paddled down to Interstate 35. The section of the river below the bridge was new to me.
On Sunday, I met up in Bandera with seven paddlers from San Antonio, the Canyon Lake area, Corpus Christi, and Houston to enjoy the Medina River. We ran the 9.3-mile stretch from the Peaceful Valley Road bridge downstream to Bandera City Park. The river was running at about 300 cfs at Bandera when we launched shortly before noon and around 275 cfs when we arrived about four hours later at the park. After almost three years of extremely low water on the Medina, it was great to be back on this beautiful little river.
The small waterfall a short distance from where we launched presented a challenge.
Unfortunately, I botched my attempts to video Kathy Cusick and Gary Tupa running the main falls. However, I was able to capture Gary successfully testing the water pump in his canoe.
Kirk Cammarata and Debbie Snow were ready to lend a hand ...
... as Dan Carroll observed the carnage.
Bing McClellan and Dan enjoy the cypress canopy.
Gary found an inflatable friend on the river, ...
... which Kirk for some reason found amusing.
All in all, it was a great day on the Medina River.
