Brazos River Canoe Trip

[JohnRich 4]

I decided to "get away from it all" for the Labor Day weekend, and succeeded nicely - I didn't see another human being for 2.5 days. I had the great outdoors all to myself!

The Brazos River runs for about 800 miles through Texas, from the north, all the way down into the Gulf of Mexico. This trip covered a 35-mile section, and I have now canoed 81 miles of the Brazos.

The river was originally named by Spanish explorers as Rio Brazos de Dios, which meant 'The River of the Arms of God'. This river is the longest in Texas, and ranks eleventh among the longest rivers of United States.

I paddled and drifted during the day, stopping to explore often along the riverbanks. I camped out overnight on sand bars, completely self-sufficient.

This is my photo presentation on my 35-mile 2.5 day canoe trip on the Brazos River, west of Houston, Texas:

http://picasaweb.google.com/JohnRich3rd/BrazosRiver

It's set up to display like a slideshow presentation. The photos have been downsized to go easy on your modem, and there are about 50 of them.

Go to the link, above, and click "slideshow". Then immediately go to the bottom of the screen and click on the plus-sign a few times to increase the number of seconds between images, or it'll zoom right past the first few without giving you time to see them. You can click the "back" arrow to back-up and see anything you missed.

Enjoy!

[AggieDave 6]

Dude, you know there's gators in the Brazos, right?

"The Brazos still runs muddy, like she's run all along..."

Anyways, it looks like you had a fun trip! Good luck with your clean up and I wish you luck.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[JohnRich 4]

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Dude, you know there's gators in the Brazos, right?

Anyways, it looks like you had a fun trip! Good luck with your clean up and I wish you luck.

I've heard that about gators from several people, but I've yet to spot one.

And yes, there IS a lot of mud along the Brazos. This section was pretty clean, but the take-out was a muddy mess, and I was filthy by the time I got all my gear and the canoe up the riverbank. It takes several hours once I get back home to wash everything off. That's one of the prices you have to pay to see this river up-close.

I bathe in the river in the evening, rinsing the silt off with fresh water, and change into clean clothes for hanging out around camp. Then the dirty clothes go back on in the morning before heading back out onto the water again.

The next stretch I want to do is to start up in your area around College Station, and paddle down to Navasota. That's going to be a multi-day expedition too.

[FlyingJ 0]

What a great trip. I've yet to spend much time on anything but the Guadalupe down between Victoria and San Marcos area.

I've got a fantastic kayak for open water (http://www.feathercraft.com/kayaks/traditional/kahuna/index.php but I'm too freakin afraid of taking a tree branch up the butt to take it on any of the rivers around here. I'm really looking forward to getting a hard shell boat but just haven't been able to keep it up at the top of my priority list.

Thanks for sharing!

Killing threads since 2004.

[AggieDave 6]

Check your PMs and I'll show you a picture of a gator that made it a number of miles away from the river and was living in a local stock pond. The rancher was wondering why he kept loosing dogs...

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[JohnRich 4]

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What a great trip. I've yet to spend much time on anything but the Guadalupe down between Victoria and San Marcos area.

I've got a fantastic kayak for open water but I'm too freakin afraid of taking a tree branch up the butt to take it on any of the rivers around here. I'm really looking forward to getting a hard shell boat but just haven't been able to keep it up at the top of my priority list.

The water in the Guadalupe is much cleaner than the Brazos - a very pretty river. I went over there to do two days on it once with a small group, but we had a huge thunderstorm blow through camp overnight before we put-in, and everyone chickened out and went home. So I have yet to do that river.

That kayak should be okay for Texas rivers. The Houston Canoe Club (HCC) has a lot of folks kayaking the rivers. It should be plenty maneuverable to avoid obstacles. Do you have a skirt with it to keep out the water in rapids?

A kayak is a bit more difficult to overnight camp out of, since they don't hold as much gear, and are more difficult to pack. But lots of people do it.

You can check the HCC web site for a list of paddling events.

The Brazos is very tame, some people consider it boring. At low water levels, the current is only about 1 mph, and even at high water levels, it's only about 3 mph. Obstacles are few and far between, so they're easily avoided. I find myself actually paddling into the obstacles, just so I'll have some challenge.

There are several stretches of the Brazos between bridges that are 14 miles or less, and make good day trips.