I Finally had a chance to take a weekend trip with my son and a good friend to canoe/kayak the 20 mile stretch of the
Brazos river below Possum Kingdom dam May 16-17, 2009. The trip was almost cancelled due to about 60 scouts renting all of
Rochelle’s Canoes Fortunately, I checked several days before the trip began and was able to rent a canoe and kayak from
Paddle Bound River Outfitters here in the metromess.
This was my first overnight canoe camping trip so it was somewhat of an experiment to see how much gear will fit in a canoe. We were originally going to rent two canoes to make sure we had plenty of space but as it turns out my truck is not wide enough for two large canoes. This actually worked out for the better because the kayak was FUN.
Saturday’s forecast called for heavy rain, mostly before 1:00 pm, so we delayed our departure a few hours in hopes of staying at least a little dry.
All loaded up and ready to go.
We put-in the river about 1:00 pm at the Highway 16 bridge just below Possum Kingdom Dam.
Saw this boat with a rather unique bimini top along the way.
The national weather service was right, it had indeed quit raining after 1:00 pm but it remained cloudy the rest of the day.
Having never been on the Brazos River before and not sure what campsites were available, we began gathering wood as we floated in the afternoon. We found a nice campsite with a couple hours of daylight left at Fortune Bend (waypoint for Homero, 32°48'33.11"N 98°24'13.58"W) We managed to coax some damp wood into a fire and enjoyed bratwursts and hot dogs for the evening.
Spent most of the next morning in/around camp, breakfast was sausage and egg burritos.
A house with a view somewhere around Crawford Bend.
My son took the next picture of these rock pillars at Chick Bend as I was giving the kayak a go exploring around behind them. You can just see the bow of the kayak emerging from behind the rocks to the left. No whirlpools hidden here.
Yours truly just before using the paddle to check the water depth. It was deep, the paddle did not touch bottom.
Next up is the Worth scout ranch on river right. Probably the scouts take out from the day before.
A diving rock, although I did not check the water depth here.
I will do this trip again. There are numerous gravel bars beyond the campsite we chose (between Crawford and Chick Bend) so an earlier start offers more campsites to choose from.
Don
