Taking it Easy on the Brazos

My mother and M have wanted to try kayaking out for a while. I am no expert in the sport, but I have done it multiple times at camp. M is always in good shape and my mother goes to the gym at least three times per week. So fitness is not going to be an problem. We start with a little test run on a pond and now they are ready for something more adventurous.

My Father's work is right next door to the Brazos River. Through the years he has made friends with all the neighbors. One of them is an old man who owns about a mile of river front property. He also owns about a mile of property on Lake Granbury. The property is beautiful. If we could manage somehow to buy this property, I could settle down in one place for the rest of my life. The property is just that beautiful. It truly is God’s country.

The day is sunny, but the wind is blowing and it is a little cold. Nothing too bad. We set off down the river. We have a cell phone in a zip lock bag to call when we get close to the pickup point. It is about 8 in the morning when we start. We have drinks and snacks for the morning. Since we have not looked at a map, we have to guess how long the trip is and how much time it is going to take. We are guessing it is about 5 miles down river, and that we will be at the highway 67 bridge at 11 or 12, just in time for lunch.

The Brazos really is one of my favorite rivers, if not my favorite. It is a nice calm river to go on. One of my dream trips, that I will take some day, is to canoe/kayak the entire river- from the source of the water until it reaches the Gulf of Mexico. Kind of a “Goodbye to a River” extended version (“Goodbye to a River” is an amazing book by an author named John Graves. I would highly recommend reading this classic of travel/Texas literature). End of March is a good time to be on the river; it is not too hot, nor is it too cold; their not too much water, nor is there too little.
Everyone is doing well on the river. We are floating along. After about 2 hours, we take a break and eat some of the fruit that we bring along. In our mind, we have about 1 hour to 1.5 hours until we are at the pickup point. The wind has been with us for most of the morning and we are feeling good. We continue for another hour when we thing that we see the bridge. I call my father and say that we can see the bridge in the distance and that we will be there in 15 minutes. As I look closer to the bridge, I can see that it is obviously not the 67 bridge, but the rock quarry bridge. This may not sound important, but it is very important. We thought that we passed the rock quarry bridge 1.5 hours ago. The quarry bridge is the half way point.

We pull over to talk about our situation, though there is not much to talk about. What can we do about it? Absolutely nothing! There is no bridge that we can be picked up on until we reach 67, so we are in for the long haul. That is ok though, everyone is feeling good and the wind has been behind us the entire way. Our luck, of course, was about to change.

As we were going under the bridge, I was on the phone with my father telling him that he did not in fact need to pick us up because we are only half way there. This was a very bad plan on my part, because this was the only place thus far in the river where we have a strong current and deep water. The back of my kayak hit a tree branch and I flipped the kayak. The water was strong enough to sink my kayak instantly and I was soaked. This also meant that everything in my back was also soaked. No problem, we placed everything into zip lock backs. I swam to the shore and pulled the kayak to where I could touch the bottom of the river, drained it and did a quick check of everything. Phone- ok, food and water (what little remained)- ok, new digital camera sealed in a zip lock bag- floating in a zip lock bag full of water. I must not have closed the bag tightly, the camera was ruined.

By the time I caught up to the ladies, I was already dry, but the there was not to do for the camera. It was now noon, the food was about out, we were starting to run a little low on water and to make matters worse, the wind had changed direction. We were now kayaking into the wind. This makes a huge difference. When one kayaks with the wind, life is good. When one is kayaking against the wind, life sucks. Especially after one has only kayaked half way when we thought that we were almost finished.

Everyone did good, no one complained (too loudly) and we made it to the end. Dad was there ready to pick us up with lemonade and subway. We downed it all like we had never eaten in the last 6 months. We did not do anything that evening. We had planned to go to the movies, but it did not happen. We just went home and let Dad take care of us. The next day we thought that we would be sore, but we were not. Already the next day we could laugh (with the exception of the camera that I ruined) at our day.