Colorado River paddle

[randell]

We drove over to Columbus on Saturday to do the paddling trail mentioned in the current issue of Tx Parks and Wildlife magazine. Actually, I had read about it before and had the trip planned, then I just happened to see it in the magazine on last Thursday.

The paddle is 6.5 miles and it makes a gooseneck so that you wind up about a mile from the put-in (map). The gooseneck shape of the river makes it possible to do a semi-loop and not have the need for a shuttle or upstream paddle. When we got to the end I walked the mile back to get the car while my wife stayed and watched the kids play.

We wanted the kids to be able to swim if they wanted to so we brought the canoe and a 3 man raft that we roped to the canoe. This worked out great, especially since we took out neighbor's daughter along and three kids in the canoe would have been crazy. The paddle took us about 3 hours but we could have easily taken all day. The kids wanted to play all the time. We had to bargain with them: let us paddle for 1 mile then you can play for 10 minutes.

I used a gorillapod to attach an old point and shoot to the front of the canoe. I had the point and shoot programmed to take a photo every 7 seconds so I had a time-lapse of the trip from the perspective of the front of the canoe. The video is in the gallery if you want to check it out. It is not as smooth as I had hoped, but with my 3 year old crawling all over the canoe and the kids in the raft always jumping out and stopping us, our course was not exactly straight.

Here are a few pics:
Our floatilla.


My 3 year old helping my wife paddle while the other kids play.


My 3 year old relaxing while I do all the work.


If you are interested, the complete gallery is here.

[txhiker]

Thanks for the trip report and the pics. I've canoed down the Colorado river at Colorado Bend State Park as it is closer to home. I crossed the Colorado 2 weeks ago when driving along I-20 and it was so small I could jump across it. Surprisingly it becomes the longest river with both its source and mouth within Texas.

The one thing I noticed was that you were sitting in the front which made me wonder if I sit in the right place...so I looked it up and here is an answer "River canoeing! The bow paddler directs the canoe. He/she uses draw or pry strokes to put the canoe bow on a new track. The stern paddler simply moves the stern to alignment with the bow. Really simple. Our school continually proved that this was the best way to control the canoe. However, most males resent being in the bow. They insist on the 'Hiawatha' position. If they steer from the rear they have poor leverage...The stern paddler can't hear the bow paddler, another reason the males like to sit in the rear if they have a female partner." I guess I'll try the front next time and deal with my wife..ahah.

David

[randell]

I am hoping to Colorado Bend next month and do some paddling/backpacking there.  Did you paddle to the waterfall downstream from the park?

I sit in the front with the idea that I can power the canoe while my wife keeps us on a straight course.  However, between providing the kids with snacks and drinks and dealing with the 3 year old she had a hard time steering so I managed to do most of the steering as well.  That works well because if I was in the back I would be getting frustrated dealing with the kids so much and she would be constantly looking back at the rest of us and not paddling and we would get nowhere.

[dave2]

Gorman Falls is upstream from the park at Colorado Bend. It would be hard to paddle from the park's river access points to the falls unless the river is really, really low.  Backpacking is a good idea as those campsites are far more seculded than the ones by the river.

[randell]

No, I was thinking of Post Oak falls.

[dave2]

Sorry, I have been away too long!  Looks like a fine float.

[RichardM]

I sit in the front with the idea that I can power the canoe while my wife keeps us on a straight course.  However, between providing the kids with snacks and drinks and dealing with the 3 year old she had a hard time steering so I managed to do most of the steering as well.  That works well because if I was in the back I would be getting frustrated dealing with the kids so much and she would be constantly looking back at the rest of us and not paddling and we would get nowhere.

I just figured it was because she's taller.

[txhiker]

Randell, I spent a full day paddling down to Post Oak falls. We had our daugther and we took several breaks to swim and play. My daughter spent a while at the falls playing, jumping in the water from the rocks and climbing up the falls to the little cave. Also, on the way to the falls on the right is a trail and some kind of inlet where a creek flows into the river, the water was crystal clear and there were several pools where we swam and played. The only part I didn't like is that there can be a lot of boaters and you know how many behave around kayaks/canoes.

We did the trip to Gorman falls however that was with with the park staff and you follow a car procession to get there. You get to spend some time there and then they make you go back to the park. It was nice...but I liked Post Oak falls more.

We also did the cave tour with the park staff. It was really cool as the cave has no lights and you get to walk to the end of the cave. There are some wet spots but overall it is a easy nice hike. The hardest part is the entrance to the cave but my 5 year old girl did fine, so you shoud be to. We brought two 3 million candle power spotlights and it helped show all the dark spots of the caves.

I would definatly suggest Colorado bend as there is a lot to do and the kiddos will enjoy!