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| Guadalupe River Photo: Bryan Taylor |
Our trip down the Guadalupe continues. If you haven't read Part 1, please take a look. We are about 3/4 of the way through our trip and there is more drama to come.
After we thanked the couple for helping us get as much of our things together as possible, we headed off
again. Not too far downstream, we
encountered another rapid that had a small drop.
There was a small gravel bar with maybe an inch of water running over it
to the left side of the river. I motioned to Laura to head over there with me
and she did. We got out of the canoes
and the kids played in a small eddy out of the current while I tried to figure
out the best line to get through these rapids.
At some point, I became aware that this was the rapid the man spoke
about where there was a chute off to the right side. I watched as some tubers went through the
rapids and some went around through the chute. I guess he had given up on
waiting for us.
I thought about the options and although I saw tubers go in
and tubers come out, the safety of my family squashed and notion of adventure
here. The kids were having fun playing
and Laura really wanted to keep going. I
didn’t want to put my family through that again, so I decided I would walk the
canoes through the rapids myself, which I did.
Once I reached the other side, We set sail again for Bigfoot
Canoes with the hope that we had just crossed our last rapid. There was a short peaceful paddle to the FM
311 bridge (also known as Esser’s Crossing) where we encountered another rapid.
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| Brother and sister at Nichols Landing Photo: Chris Carson |
This one seemed to be pretty tame in comparison to the last
two. No drop in elevation, just about 500 feet
of fast running water over a
rock garden. We began to encounter
trouble again when we bottomed out. Laura hit a larger boulder that tossed
Caitlyn out like a ragdoll. Caitlyn
actually seemed to be having fun. To hear her tell the story, she just bailed
out. As she bailed out, Laura fell to that side
and began taking on water. She rolled out held on to the canoe for what seemed
like an eternity. I kept telling her to
let go and she just kept looking at me. It was a tremendously amazing feat of
strength I was watching as she held on to that canoe in fast moving water while
it was filling up with rushing water.
I was stuck, bottomed out in my canoe. If I stood up, and helped her, it would have
floated off with Cole and Cody in the rapids. I was
not in a position to help her without putting my two son’s in
danger. Finally, after pleading with her
to let go, she asked “Where is Caitlyn?”
She didn’t see that Caitlyn swam to shore just like I told her to do
before we ever left home. She finally let go. I found out later that she never saw Caitlyn swim away, and couldn't see her over the canoe. She thought Caitlyn was trapped or on the other side of the canoe and was afraid that she would get run over by the canoe if she let go.
About the time she did finally let go, a woman who had been there with
some other folks came out to help. I
stood up and pushed my canoe with the kids in it across about 30 feet of VERY
fast moving water about 4 inches deep or so.
I literally had to push this canoe running behind it as fast as I could
to get it to shore. It reminded me of many football workouts 30 years ago pushing the sled.
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| Guadalupe River Photo: Brian Taylor |
With the drift I encountered, I was about 25 yards
downstream from where Laura was when I finally got it beached. I went back for her. The woman grabbed the canoe and was in some deeper, slower water
where she could anchor it. Laura was
sitting in the rapids where she turned over still catching her breath. I knew she was safe there and was not ready
to stand up and make her way across the rushing water, so I grabbed the canoe
and this nice woman helped me with getting the canoe (full of water) across the
fast moving water and beached again now about 30 yards downstream. I went back
again for Laura as she made her way to the canoes.
The woman, who came to help, assisted me in flipping the
canoe to get the water out. About this time, a man who seemed drunk came to
help Laura who was sitting in the water near the canoes still catching her
breath. As he was trying to help her up
or something, he dropped the woman’s dog in the water. She quickly snatched up
the dog and gave him an earful as they left. It was a very awkward situation. Later, Laura asked me “What was that guy
doing?” Truthfully, I was baffled.
We got back in the canoes and paddled downstream again
hoping we had seen our last rapids before the take out at Bigfoot. Low and behold, the next turn in the river
was the take out. Laura and I were glad to see it. The kids still wanted to play. I called the office at Bigfoot and told them
we were at the take out. The man told me
that the driver would be back soon.
We let the kids play in the river while we waited. Another
group of tubers showed up, picked up their tubes and headed up the hill for
their cars. Another group with some
tubes and canoes showed up. It had been
30 minutes or so since I called. They
were going to leave their rented canoes there and just head back to their
cars. I wasn’t about to haul our borrowed
canoe uphill a half a mile to the truck, but I considered going to get the
truck. About the time I prepared to hike
to the truck, the old beat up Scout II that took us to Nichol’s Landing showed
up. We loaded our things and headed back
to the truck.
The golf ball sized lump on Laura’s arm was holding
steady. She had good mobility and we
were all hungry, so we decided to stop at Beefy’s Backyard in Spring Branch to
eat some dinner, lick our wounds and decompress a little before we headed home.
On the way into the restaurant, we ran into some baseball friends coming back
from a tournament. Even telling them the ordeal then didn’t seem to do it
justice.
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| Guadalupe River Photo Bryan Taylor |
I was just thinking about starting this blog back then and
it took me quite some time to write about this
experience. Some of the details are a little fuzzy at
this point, but I know some things for certain.
Caitlyn and Cole were tested that day and they proved to be smart and
good listeners even though there was some pretty dangerous situations. They handled it well. I guess we didn’t do a
very good job of preparing Cody for this adventure. He had no idea what to
expect. I believe this is why he was so scared to start off the trip.
In the future, I will always inspect the craft in which we
travel. As I’m thinking about it now, I don’t ever remember more than a basic
once over in looking at either canoe.
Don’t ever take for granted that things are in good condition.
I will also have back up plans for these kinds of
trips. Where can we take out along the
way if something were to happen? How
will we get back to where we need to be? etc.
We have not let this dampen our adventurous spirit. Laura and
I have discussed it with the kids and pointed out things we could have done
better or been better prepared for.
I should have known that a canoe trip with two adults and
three kids (one of which was 4) with experience being little to none was not a
good idea. A trip to a lake in a protected cove out of the wind would have been
a much better idea. I might have even been able to fish a little with that kind
of trip!
Most of all, I thank God for watching over us and putting those helpful souls in our path. Without the help of these people, we would have probably lost a canoe and many other things at the very least. Laura is still upset about her ring to this day, but I am thankful it was only the ring that was lost when you consider other alternatives like our lives or our kids.
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