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Published: February 28th 2017
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We awoke today to a cloudy sky in the east. The clouds soon filled in our way, and before long it was cool and overcast. We wanted so much to call Todd today and offer him birthday wishes, but we still have zero service here. The word is that this is AT&T country, and that here all other carriers are duds – can you hear me now Verizon? I put my laptop in my backpack and rode over to the washroom at the upper campground. I sat down 30 feet from the wifi emitter – but still no luck. I could see an air bridge antenna pointed over to the park headquarters, so then I peddled over there to try again. I did get a bit of sketchy wifi inside, and the building was heated – two-fer! I got caught up on my emails, and sent BD wishes to the T-man.
I was also able to check the weather on Weather Underground. It said zero chance of rain, and clearing by noon – so we were on for our planned paddling trip on the lower Pecos river. I had driven over the Rt 90 Pecos River bridge in
2011, and at the time I thought that it looked like a great place to kayak. It's the highest roadway bridge in the state, and it crosses the river in a deep (over 300 ft) limestone canyon. The river there is wide too, maybe 300 yards, but with very little current. We put in at the ramp of the Federal Lake Amistad Pecos boat launch. Ordinarily, this would require a fee to be paid, but for the first time, I got to use my US “Old Fart's Pass”. Once you turn 62, you can apply for this pass, and for a one time fee of $20, you can get into any Federal recreation site for free. Not only that, my child bride gets in too – what a deal!
Where we launched, we were less than a mile from the Pecos' confluence with the Rio Grand, but we planned to head in the other direction, upstream and north. By now the clouds had gone, and it sunny and pleasantly warm – perfect paddling conditions. We launched, and in the first half mile we had passed under the highway bridge and into the wild
canyon. The towering limestone walls of the gorge were worn and shaped into all kinds of fascinating forms. There were lots of shallow caves, some of them huge. Here too were ancient Native rock shelters, some of them with pictographs, on both sides of the river. We saw lots of birds, some very familiar to us, like ospreys, turkey vultures, and great blue herons, and others I could only guess about. Very few animals, with the exception of goats, we saw lots and lots of goats. Cathy would make her goat call at them, and they would respond. Previously, I never gave her much credit for her goat call, but it seems the goats themselves do not agree with my assessment. I will cede that point in favor of the more qualified judges.
After about 4 miles we came to the Southern Pacific RR trestle, high over the river. Next to it we found an old pumping station, once used to pump river water way up to a high tank, where it was used to replenish the boilers on the old SP steam locomotives. There's nothing I enjoy more than looking at old
abandoned machinery, so that was a treat. Unfortunately, the construction of the Amistad Dam has raised the water level there several feet, so everything was part way underwater. Still, I could recognize a couple of huge single cylinder diesel pump engines, and a big sand filter – cool stuff.
After that we paddled into a small side canyon, and hauled out for a lunch break. It was a lovely spot, and we were tempted to take a dip, but the water was cold, and we chickened out. After a rest, we re-launched and headed back. About half way back, I nosed into a flooded side canyon that had caught my eye on the way out. It turned out to be a real find, with fantastic rock formations, and even a flooded cave that I was able to paddle right into. It reminded me of nothing so much as the ape village in the original “Planet of the Apes” movie. Fortunately, it was totally devoid of any (with the exception of yours truly) apes, intelligent or otherwise.
When we got back to the ramp, there were some young guys there packing up their inflatable stand-up paddle boards. We recognized them from the campground where we were staying. They were members of an outdoor adventure group based in San Antonio. The boards were being used to get to the bases of some of the cliffs here so they could rock climb the faces. They were amused by the appearance of my crazy old kayak. I explained to them that I had bought it on Craig's List, and that I believed that it was an old flatwater single racing canoe that someone had decked over. I told them that I knew quite well that it was ugly as hell, but that it paddled like a rocket, and I dearly loved it. One of the guys asked to try it, and was quickly amazed by how straight it tracked, and how fast it went. Another one challenged him to a race with one of the SUPS, and of course, that turned out to be no race at all. Stand Up Paddleboards may be many things, but fast isn't one of them.
After that it was back to Fred for a rest (read “NAP” in my case) then a simple dinner of BLT's and then the sack. Tomorrow we will pack up again and hit the road for Big Bend National Park – for more hiking and more paddling. We're not getting tired of enjoying ourselves – yet.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
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