Devil's River: Day 1

By -
A while back my friend Jeremy began kicking around the idea of a float down Devil's River in southwest Texas. I told him I was all in but didn't think much about it until two months ago Jeremy emailed me that he had found an outfitter to rent kayaks from and provide transport, researched permitting and trip logistics and devised an itinerary.  All he needed was to find five other interested persons and nail down a date. I volunteered.

A little background information. Devil's River is spring fed river in southwest Texas that feeds into the Rio Grande. It is remote. It is very natural. Rivers in Texas tend to be very developed with lots of riverfront homes and low water dams.

We met up at Steve, Jeremy and Bryan's homestead Thursday morning. All six of us decided to pile into Jeremy's SUV for the four hour trip to the outfitter. Here Jerry, Steve, and Jeremy are making the final packing arrangements

Jeremy showing some dog love to Bruiser. Defend the homestead while we're away.

Speaking of dog love, this guy in front was taking four of his dogs out for a ride . The dogs seemed to enjoy vying for a treasured(yet precarious) spot on top of the tool box.
Speaking of precarious, a four hour car ride with a bunch of guys might quite possibly lead to an in depth Star Wars discussion. Jerry takes the opportunity for some nap time.

The first outfitter only had three kayaks so Jeremy had found another outfitter to rent another three kayaks from.
Loading up the first three kayaks we squeezed into the outfitter's(Darren's) truck and drove the 45 minutes to the next outfitter. Three in front. Four in the back.
Loading the other three kayaks at the second outfitter.


45 minutes later we arrived at the put in spot in late afternoon.

Ready to put in. Introductions from left to right, Jeff(my college room mate, Jeremy's brother), Aaron(me), Steve (Jeremy's father-in-law), Bryan (Jeremy's father-in-law), Bryan (Jeremy's brother-in-law, Steve's son-in-laws), Jerry (Steve's brother-in-law), Jeremy (my college roommate, Jeff's brother). Lots of in-laws there. In fact five of the people on the trip were some form of family but only two were blood related. Sounds like the beginning of a riddle. 
First views of Devil's river. Me likey! We paddled half a mile up stream from the put in point to Finegan springs to camp out.

Setting up camp at Finegan Springs
Making dinner in front of my coffin-esque tent.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Black Soldier Fly Larva Harvester

By -
Image
Black soldier fly larva are voracious decomposers. Here's a video  of a some larva completely devouring a hamburger over the course of five hours. And here's a video of some chickens completely devouring some black soldier fly larva. Black soldier flies have some curious qualities that make them particularly well suiting for cultivating their larva as fodder for your feathered friends: As stated before black soldier fly larva are voracious. They will eat fish and meat scraps that you would not typically put in your compost pile for fear of attracting larger vermin. They break down organic material into usable compost extremely rapidly. As an added bonus black soldier fly larva eat the eggs of other fly species who foolishly lay their eggs in rotting organic material. This severely diminishes your population of house flies and fruit flies. I had a compost pile that was beset with fruit flies until the black soldier fly larva moved in. When a black soldier fly larva is re...
Read more

Roundwood Building Workshop

By -
Image
I went to a Roundwood Building Workshop this weekend. Roundwood is timber that is left as logs rather than being cut into planks. We constructed a shelter for a cob pizza oven (yet to be constructed). The timer is a mix of red cedar and ash juniper. Before doing anything with it we had to take the bark off it to prevent insect infestation down the road. The night before the project leaders charred the end of the posts that would be put in the ground. The charring is another insect infestation prevention measure. Getting the cut ends charred is of particular importance. The post holes were dug to a depth of 2-3'. We also half buried a couple of dozen roofing nails in the charred end of each post for additional stabilization. The cool thing about roundwood is that you can use features of the tree(like this limb) to add beauty and support. This limb will provide support for a girder. After we got the posts in position we back-filled the holes with decomposed g...
Read more

T-Brick Shed: Rubble Trench French Drain Installation

By -
Image
The last thing Jean told me before she left for the UK was that I had better finish the shed project before she gets back or else. The trench was a little soggy still but I decided to press on with the french drain installation for fear what that else may be (Although, I'm hoping the "else" will be make me a delicious sandwich). I dug out the high section blocking  the drain outlet and and cleaned up a some edges before putting down landscape fabric and a layer of gravel. Putting down the landscape fabric in the trench. Landscape fabric is water permeable but significantly less sediment permeable. This will help prevent the gravel and french drain from becoming blocked up with silt. Here's my work crew. The tamp/rake tango Release the hose! Uncoiling the perforated tubing. First objective was to fill in the tripping hazard that is the drain outlet. Note how we form a sort of gravel/perforated hose burrito with the landscape fabric. We...
Read more