On the first stretch we had a lot of obstacles to maneuver around and several rapids that we had to make decisions whether to run or portage. We portaged the Staples Dam by going in between the garage and house and down the steps at a house. We love the owners of this house for making it so easy for paddlers to come by. At one point we attempted to run a rapid that had a lot of obstacles and found ourselves stuck on a log in fast water. I jumped out of the boat and pulled us through and we were on our way. This section was a good lesson in communication and navigation to safely move the boat around things.
For the night paddle we are very thankful for the help we received from fellow paddlers Debbie Richardson, Mike Drost and Ginsie Stauss. They were so kind to drop our vehicle at the end point and give us an hour head start on this stretch of the water.
We are paddling a recreation class aluminum canoe and they are paddling much faster C1,C2 and unlimited canoes. Paddling at night was a whole new experience for us. We learned quickly that your depth perception goes away and that you see things up ahead that don't actually exist. Joy would ask things like "go left?" and I would answer no going forward will work because there wouldn't be anything in the way. At one point I said hold on let me see how to get through this when there was nothing in the way. The reflections off the water and the bank make your eyes see obstacles when there are not any.
We had a full moon and the weather was beautiful for the paddle. The night sounds were wonderful. We had an owl hooting at us, coyotes howling and fish jumping. The bugs were only bad for the first hour of the paddle and the rest of the night was beautiful. About 13 miles into the paddle we came to a large log jam and portaged around it. As we were putting our boat back in the water we saw two lights. We heard them holler log jam and I yelled back at them log jam. They were quite surprised to hear someone else on the other side. Scott paddled with us for about an hour and shared tips for doing the Texas Water Safari. One of the best things he told us was if an alligator comes at your boat they will normally just duck under the boat and go away. They are not aggressive unless provoked. We talked about navigating the bay and the types of food that he brings on the Texas Water Safari. This will be his first year doing the Texas Water Safari solo. Mike dropped back to check on Deb and Ginsie and they all caught up to us later. We attempted to keep up with their pace for awhile but we are quickly overrun and back on our own for the last 7 miles of the section. Our last big challenge was the portage around Gonzalez dam. The bank was very muddy and slick. We did the short portage down the rocks and learned later that the longer portage through the grass is much safer. This is a shot of us at midnight after 52 miles of paddling for the day!
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