Alamo River Campground

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We had not been sure how arrangements for meeting up with Ian and Mariah would work out, so we had reserved three nights at “The Alamo River Campground” south of San Antonio. It turned out to be very nice. It was a working-class place, with a lot of full-time resident customers, even kids who went to local schools. It has been our experience in the past that those sort of places can be seedy, unfriendly, and a bit scary. That wasn't the case here though, everybody was very welcoming, the staff went out of their way to be helpful, and it was very clean.



Our first day there we did some chores, relaxed for a bit, and went out and did some shopping. I also went for a bike ride about their large property. In the back, there was a long frontage on a small and swift flowing river. Not, as I found out, the “Alamo River” but the Medina. It was a bit cloudy, but not really full-on muddy, and it flowed through some beautiful big cypress trees. There was no way to cross it, as the old bridge there was not in the best repair. We asked a guy fishing if there were any bass to be found. He said he didn't know about bass, but he was there for the big catfish that he knew were there. I asked him how far you could boat upstream before you got to any really fast water – he said “quite a ways”. So we resolved that tomorrow we would splash the Sportboat to see how far a Texas “quite a ways” really was.



After another “quiet” night at the campground, we got ready to launch about mid-morning. I put the quotes around quiet because that was the only real failing of the Alamo River, the noise. Not, as you might think, from the campground itself, but from it's environs. About a half mile away there was a busy railroad track, with quite a few nearby level crossings – so, a lot of air horn was heard. I didn't really mind that so much as the campground's immediate next-door neighbor, which was some kind of holy dog kennel. At least I assume that's what it was, as it had it's own version of the typical Texas ranch gate, only this one proclaimed in big steel letters “God's Dogs”



I would say whatever else it was, it was certainly the home of the “Holy Terriers” as those godamn dogs NEVER STOPPED BARKING. They would occasionally slow down to one or two (perhaps?) designated yappers, but then something would set them off again, and the whole dogbone chorus would build to a crescendo one more time --- arrrggghhh!



Anyway, I digress –



We drove down to the river and launched the boat into the funky cold Medina. The bank (which I carefully checked for water moccasins first) was muddy, which led to me skiing down to the boat in my crocs, performing a pretty good stem christy, then leaping gracefully aboard. At least that's how I remember it, Cathy's story may vary in some details.



I hadn't wanted to dig out the motor for this exploratory run, so I set the oars to work, and we headed out up-stream. It was fun to be on such a unusual (at least for us) river, but we didn't get too far. After maybe a quarter mile of Cathy giving me steering calls from the rear seat as we snaked (not a good word to use in these waters) around various obstacles in our path, the channel narrowed to a very fast curving chute, we could go no farther.



So I just shipped the oars and we enjoyed a leisurely drift back (quite a ways) to our starting point. The first mate had a good idea about pulling up to a big cypress and stepping out on to a large horizontal root. That took all the excitement out of unloading.



We loaded the boat back on the truck (good practice for Arizona) and then had a nice half hour Frisbee session with our new .80 disc from Arkansas – it's a good flyer. After that it was back to our site. I went for a bike ride then and had a near-death experience being chased by two bloodthirsty chihuahuas, the hounds of hell they were, but that's a story for another time. The next morning we would be off to West Texas, and the Davis Mountains.

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Comments

[dreamer]

Armchair Travels
Thanks for letting me travel along with you on your adventures, T&C! I visited the Alamo as a little kid with my family in the w a a a y back when! dreamer