Palmetto to Gonzalez TWS Training

Yesterday began our first leg of training for the Texas Water Safari. We planned a trip from Palmeto State Park on the San Marcos River 25 miles to the Gonzalez 183 Take-out. The total trip time was 6.5 hours with 5.5 hours of total moving time on the water. We averaged 4.5 miles per hour on this leg of the river with our maximum speed of 8.1 miles per hour. During the trip we encountered many obstacles and we enjoyed the experience of conquering the obstacles and finding the best route around or over the obstacles. The first major obstacle that we came to was a herd of cows in the middle of the river. We joked later in the day that the black cows were playing "chicken" with us. The last cow had some good bragging rights because he let us get within about 2 feet before jumping out of the water and onto the safe bank.

I told Joy we could name our team "I see tree people" because I often see things in the shapes of the trees. I primarily see people and animal shapes. Along this stretch of the river I noticed a Donkey lying on his back sun bathing, a headless and armless naked woman lounging on the bank, a jack rabbit - Joy thought this looked like an old time plow, a hippo, an alligator and various other faces... Joy said she was glad I told her these things on a short trip so she wouldn't think I was totally hallucinating on our long distance paddles.



Real wildlife that we saw on the trip included about 5 or 6 Blue Heron, A red winged Hawk, 5 snakes sunning themselves on branches, lots of turtles including a high diving turtle that we gave a score of 8.5 due to the dorsal fin causing a splash, black cows, brown cows, a black lab in a golf cart, 3 tubby guys with shirt turbans drinking beer in a fishing boat, 2 redneck guys fishing on the bank, and many fishy splashes as we paddled over them!

We maneuvered around 4 log jams on this stretch of the water. The first log jam was fairly simple to get over because it was big enough to stand on the log. Since we were out of the boat we took advantage of the opportunity to pee and we marked our territory on the log.

Now if you have never paddled this stretch of water you might find peeing on a log strange, but you do what you gotta do on this race to save time and take care of all of your personal needs when you can! If you are already out of the boat it is a prime time to relieve yourself.



Around 13 miles into the paddle from Palmetto we came across a huge log jam that required us to portage the boat up the bank and around a fallen tree. The path is to river left and is fairly easy to navigate and get back in the water.



We were not too sure of the portage point at the Gonzalez dam but we finally figured out that it is about 15 feet from the drop on the right side. The portage is marked by a rope on the tree and the roots of the tree make it easy to climb the bank.



We spent a lot of time talking about food options for the race including ways to get our coffee fix during the 3 day journey. We both agree that tuna packs and whole wheat tortillas will be in our food supplies. We will continue to ask people what they normally take on the trip to keep from crashing out. We tried out an espresso goo yesterday that wasn't too bad. I liked that the goo actually had a coffee taste and it worked pretty good without upsetting my stomach.

Last but not least we had an amazing moment on the river when a blue heron flew in front of us and lost a feather. The feather floated gently above us and swirled in the wind. The feather reminded me of the peaceful balance of nature and the joy of spending time outside.

I will add pictures of the trip to this post soon. Stay tuned for more Safari adventures to come. We are on the water Monday and Wednesday on town lake this week and Thursday on the San Marcos River.