Jul 30, 2012 Quality Time I have to share with you a wonderful secret spot east of Austin, the lower Colorado River. I adore it. I want to go again and again. The Colorado is a long, wide, slow-moving river with plenty of scenery to capture your eye. This past Saturday Chap and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary with a lovely canoe ride. We woke up with the sun, grabbed some tacos, and got on the river by 8. We had it all to ourselves for hours. It was quiet and cool in the morning. The sounds of birds and aquatic life filled the air, it almost felt wrong to talk out loud, so we stayed very quiet, at times even whispering. Dozens of great blue herrons, white egrets, and anhingas guided us down the river. As we approached they would hop and then soar off into the distance calling to each other. We would drift with the tide down stream only to embark on the same birds again, as if they were waiting for our arrival. And when we did, they would scoot onto the next post and wait again for us to catch up. Or was it all just a dream. I noticed a friendly spider resting inside the center of the bow, I enjoyed her presents, and I believe she enjoyed the ride. She was getting annoyed at my dripping oar passing over her so I let her off at the next island we came to. The riverbed on this reach is sand and gravel, rising occasionally to form sand and gravel islands where overnight camping or day trip stopovers can be found. As we approached the afternoon it was hard for me to accept that our trip was coming to an end, so I studied our map and realized the next public access point for putting in and taking out was 17 miles down stream, which could be another 6-8 hours on the river. We decided against taking the next stretch and got off the river in time for lunch. But we vowed to return again with a plan to camp overnight. If you or someone you know is in or around the Austin area and would be interested in renting a canoe for the lower Colorado I recommend Cooks Canoes, they were friendly and served us well. They also offer shuttles for people with their own boats. Chap did most of the rowing that day, allowing me to take photos and shoot video, here is a little clip of our day.
