TRIP REPORT CONTINUED


THURSDAY

Thursday morning greets us with a very nice 10-15mph breeze blowing in a very favorable direction. The plan is to get out in the open lake and head West. We will be going under the I-90 bridges and beyond. Our starting point for the morning is only a mile wide, so the waves were not a problem but I wasn’t so sure about the open water we were about to get into.


Traveling at a nice pace


Mark liking this pace much better than yesterdays

We soon hit open water and the waves are rolling 3 footers. I was kept an eye on the kayaks because they were bouncing off the waves like ping pong balls. An overturned kayak would have been a mess. So far so good. Soon we could see the I90 bridges ahead of us.


Looking through the jib.


Getting closer

As we get closer, I start to wonder if the boat will even go under. I had an incident on Lake Texoma a couple of years ago that Id rather forget. This time I slow way down and check to be sure.


Just checking

As we went under the car bridge, a train crossed.


Soon the bridges were behind us and we continued in the open water with Mexican water on our left. We are clipping along at a pretty good pace and we are 15miles from our starting point. The decision is made to find a nice cove and get back to fishing. So, that’s what we did. As I got off the boat, I found this.


Big crawdaddy

We had landed in a protected cove but I found the better fishing to be had on the windy side of the point. The water in the main lake is a crystal clear instead of the blueish water from the river. I caught lots of bass off the point while Mark found his in the back of the cove. Lunch came and we decided to head back to the original boat ramp. We both wanted to try the Pecos River. We would be putting the Banana on the trailer and using kayaks for the rest of the trip. As we leave the point I suggest that we make a marine invasion of Mexico. So we did.


Heading South to Mexico


Rounding the bouy


Mexican waters

We are cruising back at a very good clip. The GPS had us at 10mph. With the boat loaded the way it was, it was hard to keep the hull from stuffing. I actually had to let out on the main. Four miles from the ramp, I had a CRAP moment. I could see my tent in the grass right where I left it. I had tied the boat up earlier and stashed my nice Eureka tent in the tall grass ahead of the big rock I used for the boat…….12 miles back. It was late in the afternoon and too late to go get it as the wind was easing up. We continued back to the ramp and I was pouring over the map looking for the closest ramp/water access spot I could find. Turns out I had two choices. The first was to trailer a ways and it would be a 12mile trip and me sailing with no lights way after dark. The second was to drop my kayak in at the I90 bridge and do a 7 mile open water paddle. Half of that being in the dark. It was that or leave a very nice tent for someone to find and I didn’t like that plan at all.


I chose the sunset paddle


Big Dummy Pose

The waves were quartering and sloshing a bunch of water in the kayak. I did get concerned as this kayak does not have a skirt. I also had my head on a swivel looking for boat traffic. I put on my LED headlight on flashmode for visibility and paddled like mad. My days track log on the GPS lead me right to the lost tent. By now, it was getting really dark and I had another 3.5 miles to go. I fashioned a skirt out of the tent to help keep water out but it wasn’t needed as the wind and waves faded away. There were border patrol boats running up and down the bouys, so I turned off my light to avoid detection. They were a mile on my right. The night sky came into full view without the moon and I actually enjoyed my paddle back. Its almost 10pm when I get back to the bridge. Mark helps me carry the yak up the steep riprap. He has been talking to a Border Patrol agent who was out looking for Mexicans in such craft as mine. Stupid tent….I mean stupid me.

I am famished and ate half the contents of the cooler. Loaded up we make our way west to the Pecos but not before getting pulled over by the Texas Highway Patrol for speeding. After 20 questions we were released with a written warning. We end up pulling in at Seminole Canyon State Park which is not far from the Pecos River Access. Tents quickly hit the ground and after a nice hot shower, we make like the tents and hit the ground too.


FRIDAY

The morning finds us here at this camp site. We wake a little groggy from our previous day’s 17 hour marathon. It doesn’t take long for us to get going because we are headed to the Pecos River for a paddle upstream and planned overnight campout.


Morning at Seminole State Park

Kayaks get wet at 9:30, and we make our way up the river which is lake like as this portion is part of Amistad proper. We ARE in a big canyon with steep cliffs on both sides. Its apparent that the wind is building behind us which makes for easy paddling…..for now. The canyon seems to be amplifying the wind effects and we are getting roller waves adding to our push. First stop is wreckage on the bank. Seems there was a canoe inversion and lots of the gear landed here. Conditions must have been bad because there was no reason why they couldn’t of retrieved it…..unless the wind was blowing the gear faster than they could paddle. In the end, I ended up with a very nice large drybag, some clothes, and a container or two. We tried to clean up everything but we just didn’t have room.


Heading up river. That bridge is a couple of hundred feet off the water.


Before the wind got to blowing


Canoe crash site. All of the gear was up on the bank.

We continued to paddle and soon found this critter that was floating along and drifting at a good clip. He must have been blown into the water.


Must have been a windsurfing snake of some sort.

Later in the morning, the skies cleared and the canyon narrowed, but the wind blew harder.


Little side canyon.

To be honest, the wind was very annoying. Wind is great for sailing but is stuff of dread for paddling. We attempted to fish but it was difficult trying to manage the yaks as they just blew across the water like leaves on a sidewalk. We make it up river about 5 miles when we find railroad bridge.



Like most of these pictures, scale is hard to discern. I assure you that the base concrete footings are monstrous. When trains went across, they looked like toys up there.

We caught a couple of fish. Mark got out of his yak and fished from the bank. I ended up pushing up the river hoping that it would narrow and become more river like. Two miles up I could tell it was starting to narrow but I was at mile 7 and knew padding back was going to be work. I did find a killer campsite and waited for Mark. It was getting late and I didn’t see any signs of him and decided to head back to where I last saw him a couple of hours ago. He had made the bridge and was hanging out scouting for a campsite when I reached him. The wind was still gusting and I noted that I was barely making 2mph paddling against the wall of air.

We discussed the situation. Knowing the paddle back was going to be tough, we tossed the camp out and hoped the wind would die down as we made our way back. The motivation for us to skip the overnight was that we could go back to Seminole Canyon State Park and take the rock art tour. Paddles dug in 5:30 and we couldn’t pick them out of the water or the yak would come to a complete stop in a matter of seconds. You had to paddle firmly and constantly to hold your ground. The wind was gusting and when it wasn’t, that’s when you paddled hard to make ground. My GPS spent a lot of time displaying 1.7mph which is agonizingly slow. We did pull out for a break though.


Looking down river and into the wind.


I do my Napoleon Dynamite “workout drink” move

We still admired the beauty of it all.






A couple of hours later and in the growing darkness, the wind dies……a mile from the takeout. We do our last mile watching the night sky go from blue to black and the stars arriving in bunches with each paddle stroke. Worn out, we finally hear the yaks scrape the concrete of the boat ramp. Yaks tethered to the trailer for the final time, we plop into the truck and make our way back to Seminole Canyon.

Tents up, dinner made, showers taken, and snoring finalizing our long day.

SATURDAY

We crawl out of our tents. Some of us before the other. As you can tell Im still having fun and am enjoying the sunrise before the construction equipment arrives.





Mark emerges from his nylon fortress and asks whats for breakfast. That is my que to get busy.



Its amazing what you can do with a single burner camp stove.

We head up to the park learning center and bought our tour tickets to the Indian Rock Show. It was a crazy time. Actually there were only 6 of us paying customers in the entire park. Seminole is what you might call remote and off the beaten track. Staff told us the park was used primarily as a stopover on the way to the biggie. That being Big Bend National Park which is the least visited of all of the National Parks. If you are looking to get away from it all, this is a good place to start. Mark and I have an hour to kill before the tour starts, so we take our time in the very informative exhibit.

Its show time and we meet our tour guide. His name of all things is Jack Johnson. That name might ring a bell. There is the semi famous Jack Johnson surfer/song writer. Anyway, he is young, enthusiastic, and quite the story teller.


Making our way to the “shelter”


Sample of the Rock Art


Jack doing his best to “learn” us


Looking outside the shelter and up the canyon.

After a very informative tour, Jack answered all of our questions about the people and culture of these rock artisans. Their diet made them cholesterol free for sure and Im pretty sure more of them starved to death instead of coronary problem. Tough life..tough people. We also found out in the more recent history of the area,that the railroads are what made life possible out here. There was evidence of rail activity all around.


Here is baking oven used by a rail camp.

The fauna in the desert is also quite easy on the eyes.











We all made the climb back to the top of the canyon and thanked our guide. The sun was getting up there and we were through playing on the water. It was time to head home. Soon the truck was pointing north and we retraced our steps down. Seven hours later, we make our final destination and make good with our families.

EPILOUGE

I admit it. I used the Hobie as a barge. I hope that doesn’t offend purist. I know its like taking a Corvette to Home Depot and loading a bunch of plywood in it. The boat did perform well though for this purpose. It seems Ive seen the load capacity listed for the 16 at 800lbs and Im pretty sure we were at least 650lbs. The boat handled fine and wanted to go faster in higher winds but the load on the front made that hull want to stuff. I didn’t push it as a rollover would have been a major hassle.

The racks were all made out of schedule 40 pvc. The front rack carried a Coleman cooler and two Rubbermaid totes full of food and gear. The side racks had foam backrests and mesh material to rest on. These are very sturdy,as I have used them to hike out. They make a long day on the water easy on the back. The side racks rotate up and fold flat on the boat for trailering. I estimate the weight of all the racks to be 35lbs or so. A weight I can live with for the gain in utility.


Racks folded up for trailering


Comfortable Mark?


Although there was a lot of weight on the rack, it was carried mostly at the mast. The there was no noticeable added load on the forestay/jib wire.

The kayaks were pulled on two different length ropes of 25 and 35 feet tied off the back. Yaks carried all of the fishing gear, as there was no safe place to store rods on the boat. We made covers out of poly tarp to keep water out of the yaks as they were being towed. The yaks never got in the way of the hobie except when we were going backwards at times in the shifty winded canyon ordeal. They tracked just fine and followed us with no complaints. I did worry in the waves that we might flip one but it never happened.


Kayaks on leashes

If you got this far, thank you for reading this report and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed the trip. Thanks Hobie for making a versatile boat.