Pk trip Yanke and Texas Redneck
- Thread starter tx river rat
- Start date
tx river rat said:
Thanks for the heads up , I will have my waders on in the morning when I check the forum. :lol:
Chuck.
Adventuring in Comanche country
Thanks for the pics and write-up Ron! I was there with you in spirit if not in body! I think a little bit of that river runs through my veins. Once you get it in your blood then you're hooked as surely as if it were heroin.
If I read the other thread right you were camped near Keechi Creek when you played "How high's the water Momma"? Is that correct?
Are the big chunks of concrete with rebar sticking out of them leftover from the destruction of the original bridge when the new one was built still under the Dark Valley bridge? I sorta forgot to mention that wee little hazard when talking with y'all about the trip.
Saw a jonboat speared by one of those piece of rebar hung up and abandoned there once. :?
It remains a delightful 'secret' that the Brazos, so near major metropolitan areas, still exists much as it did when 'The People' rode the war trail down Keechi valley to butcher the early settlers who had presumed to invade Comanche country. I never put in at the Hwy. 16 bridge without the haunting feeling that I was embarking in a time machine as much as a canoe. Two miles below a put-in on the Brazos is the functional equivilent of regressing a couple of hundred years in time as is true of many rivers. I suspect that it is the time machine aspect of river craft that so many of us find so endlessly fascinating.
Anyone who can paddle and camp that part of the river and not feel the spirit of The People at twilight and dawn should worry about their soul. Perhaps it is their continued presence that yet guards the river from encroachment by weekend cabins and other 'civilized' pursuits.
The piece of river driftwood with the brass spur mounted on it that I found in the junction pool of the river at Ioni Creek went home on Monday with my eldest daughter who was present on the trip when I found it. Along with that spur is mounted another spur by a great uncle who was a blacksmith in early Texas and the barrel from an early percussion revolver exhumed at the site of a blacksmith shop on the West side of the Trinity in Dallas in the early French settlement on that side of the river. There's a LOT of early Texas history on that little piece of Pine fatwood for those whose minds lean in that direction. I'll go to my grave still wondering if that cheap brass spur fell off of the boot of one of those young cowboys, the last Anglos killed by the Comanche in Texas, at the low-water crossing just above the junction pool.
Sounds like you got to witness the dreaded upriver winds on the river. It's a phenomena that must be experienced firsthand in order to lend proper credit to how difficult it can be to make any headway on the long pools on the river. It soon seperates the neophytes from the experienced paddlers.
An afternoon of that will have you looking for a good campsite earlier than usual. :wink: It will also give a double paddle user a new appreciation for unfeathered blades. :lol:
I've already suggested to Jack that the Rio Grande next follows in logical order for the Southwestern paddler. Starting with Colorado Canyon in the upper Big Bend and paddling all the way thru the Lower Canyons would be an epic journey. Tom @ Buzzard Bluff
Thanks for the pics and write-up Ron! I was there with you in spirit if not in body! I think a little bit of that river runs through my veins. Once you get it in your blood then you're hooked as surely as if it were heroin.
If I read the other thread right you were camped near Keechi Creek when you played "How high's the water Momma"? Is that correct?
Are the big chunks of concrete with rebar sticking out of them leftover from the destruction of the original bridge when the new one was built still under the Dark Valley bridge? I sorta forgot to mention that wee little hazard when talking with y'all about the trip.
Saw a jonboat speared by one of those piece of rebar hung up and abandoned there once. :? It remains a delightful 'secret' that the Brazos, so near major metropolitan areas, still exists much as it did when 'The People' rode the war trail down Keechi valley to butcher the early settlers who had presumed to invade Comanche country. I never put in at the Hwy. 16 bridge without the haunting feeling that I was embarking in a time machine as much as a canoe. Two miles below a put-in on the Brazos is the functional equivilent of regressing a couple of hundred years in time as is true of many rivers. I suspect that it is the time machine aspect of river craft that so many of us find so endlessly fascinating.
Anyone who can paddle and camp that part of the river and not feel the spirit of The People at twilight and dawn should worry about their soul. Perhaps it is their continued presence that yet guards the river from encroachment by weekend cabins and other 'civilized' pursuits.
The piece of river driftwood with the brass spur mounted on it that I found in the junction pool of the river at Ioni Creek went home on Monday with my eldest daughter who was present on the trip when I found it. Along with that spur is mounted another spur by a great uncle who was a blacksmith in early Texas and the barrel from an early percussion revolver exhumed at the site of a blacksmith shop on the West side of the Trinity in Dallas in the early French settlement on that side of the river. There's a LOT of early Texas history on that little piece of Pine fatwood for those whose minds lean in that direction. I'll go to my grave still wondering if that cheap brass spur fell off of the boot of one of those young cowboys, the last Anglos killed by the Comanche in Texas, at the low-water crossing just above the junction pool.
Sounds like you got to witness the dreaded upriver winds on the river. It's a phenomena that must be experienced firsthand in order to lend proper credit to how difficult it can be to make any headway on the long pools on the river. It soon seperates the neophytes from the experienced paddlers.
An afternoon of that will have you looking for a good campsite earlier than usual. :wink: It will also give a double paddle user a new appreciation for unfeathered blades. :lol:
I've already suggested to Jack that the Rio Grande next follows in logical order for the Southwestern paddler. Starting with Colorado Canyon in the upper Big Bend and paddling all the way thru the Lower Canyons would be an epic journey. Tom @ Buzzard Bluff
Ozark said:
I wish I'd thought while you were here recently to put that piece of driftwood in your hands and watch your face to see if you too could 'feel' the history it contains.
Ah well---were it not for hindsight I'd have little vision at all. :?
To tell the truth I don't really think I'm a very good campfire story-teller any more. My old brain functions so glacially these days that I find I now need the printed word that allows rewriting, editing and other fudge factors to tell a coherent yarn.
Now Bearridge represents the extreme other end of that spectrum! But we must always bear in mind that he's a recently retired attorney with all that implies insofar as thinking on his feet and adapting inconvenient facts to fit the situation. :wink: That gives him a distinct leg up on those not specifically educated to alter reality at a moment's notice and makes him a campfire reconntuer par excellence. :lol: Plus he stays in practice---as those familiar with his posts here can attest.
Sadly I must report however that Bear is yet something of an amatuer when compared to Jack whose mis-spent life as a bureaucrat has given him non-human level expertise in fabricating reality from disparate elements that is only attained by those who must justify their expenditure of tax monies at public expense. :wink:
:lol: :lol:Ron .. Your food list was...........
Had way to much food in the cooler there was two packs of beef sausage, 2 pork chops, 2 steaks, ground meat for four burgers, sandwich meat
cheese, mayo, olives and the water a gator aide that was frozen.
Other food in the yak 8 small cokes, frito’s, 2 packs of Pringles ,two packs of saltines ,three gallons of water, salt pepper, 1 pan ,1 bowl,,silverware, coffee cream ,sugar ,coffee pot ,cup ,2 cans spam, 1chilli, beef stew, black eyed peas with peppers, pinto beans and peppers, flour tortillas, bread ,2 cans soup , sauerkraut, 8 cans of propane, roll of garbage bags ,grill ,5 oranges , 4 fruit cups ,paper plates, paper towels. I had enough food for 10 days easy.
Your grub bag sounds good ... I like to have some rice with my black eye peas and a small can of ham to make a hopping John while paddling , a onion or onion flakes helps to kick it up.
A couple cans of Vienna's to go with the crackers and a bottle of hot sauce for river side snacking.
The Spam , have you tried the Turkey Spam , it is all white meat and darn good with some stove top dressing , mashed potatoes , cranberry's and gravy. I cooked that up for the guy's in the Okefeokee swamp , there wasn't any left over. Cut the spam in 1/4 inch thick chunks , browned it in the pan , added the gravy , let it simmer , did the potatoes and stuffing in separate pots. Cranberry sauce out of the can.
I have to ask .... What is a Frito pie , sounds good but have never heard of it.Could you give an explanation of it for this uninformed person?
The turkeys that keep you guy's company on the trip , do they allow hunting on the river , especially for turkeys , the flying kind not the paddling kind. :lol:
Chuck.
Had way to much food in the cooler there was two packs of beef sausage, 2 pork chops, 2 steaks, ground meat for four burgers, sandwich meat
cheese, mayo, olives and the water a gator aide that was frozen.
Other food in the yak 8 small cokes, frito’s, 2 packs of Pringles ,two packs of saltines ,three gallons of water, salt pepper, 1 pan ,1 bowl,,silverware, coffee cream ,sugar ,coffee pot ,cup ,2 cans spam, 1chilli, beef stew, black eyed peas with peppers, pinto beans and peppers, flour tortillas, bread ,2 cans soup , sauerkraut, 8 cans of propane, roll of garbage bags ,grill ,5 oranges , 4 fruit cups ,paper plates, paper towels. I had enough food for 10 days easy.
Your grub bag sounds good ... I like to have some rice with my black eye peas and a small can of ham to make a hopping John while paddling , a onion or onion flakes helps to kick it up.
A couple cans of Vienna's to go with the crackers and a bottle of hot sauce for river side snacking.
The Spam , have you tried the Turkey Spam , it is all white meat and darn good with some stove top dressing , mashed potatoes , cranberry's and gravy. I cooked that up for the guy's in the Okefeokee swamp , there wasn't any left over. Cut the spam in 1/4 inch thick chunks , browned it in the pan , added the gravy , let it simmer , did the potatoes and stuffing in separate pots. Cranberry sauce out of the can.
I have to ask .... What is a Frito pie , sounds good but have never heard of it.Could you give an explanation of it for this uninformed person?
The turkeys that keep you guy's company on the trip , do they allow hunting on the river , especially for turkeys , the flying kind not the paddling kind. :lol:
Chuck.
Chuck;
Heres a link to a Frito Pie recipe.
http://www.texascooking.com/recipes/Fritopie.htm
The "camping" version I remember is just opening a individual size serving bag of Fritos and dumping the chili and stuff in and eating it out if the bag.
Good camping food.
DM
mike
Heres a link to a Frito Pie recipe.
http://www.texascooking.com/recipes/Fritopie.htm
The "camping" version I remember is just opening a individual size serving bag of Fritos and dumping the chili and stuff in and eating it out if the bag.
Good camping food.
DM
mike
oldsparkey said:
OK---that does it! You've posed as a Texan so long that you've now revealed yourself! Any true Texan has a genetically implanted knowledge of the ambrosial Chili Pie. :?
Chuck
Frito pie is easy fast filling meal for camping chilli fritos onions cheeze and I like a couple slices of jalipinos on the side just warm the chilli pour over the chips stir it up and eat you use to get the small bags and split them they were just right no dishes but now that size is hard to find.
Ron
PS I had enough food that a solo yakist could have gone a month.
Frito pie is easy fast filling meal for camping chilli fritos onions cheeze and I like a couple slices of jalipinos on the side just warm the chilli pour over the chips stir it up and eat you use to get the small bags and split them they were just right no dishes but now that size is hard to find.
Ron
PS I had enough food that a solo yakist could have gone a month.
Tom @ Buzzard Bluff said:
Sorry Tom , I have been out of Texas for a while , raised by Yankee ( Wisconsin) parents , Married a New Jerseyite and raised two cracker daughters here in Florida. Did I ever say it was heck growing up as the only southerner in the family till the daughters came along. :roll: Heck my life got so screwed up I even camped and paddled with Lawyers , from both sides of the Mississippi.
Still do at times and before you say it , Yep .. don't have an ounce of proud in me. Jezeeeeeeeee I even paddle and camp with Yankees.
Just shows how low a person can go , as if paddling with Lawyers wasn't bad enough.. BUT now I'm getting an good education on camp chow and might actually be able to improve myself so they would ... at lease let me drive threw Texas.
I do know you can take some good chili (homemade preferably) put it in a tortilla , wrap it up , fold over the bottom and eat your way to the bottom in pure delicious enjoyment.
Indian fry bread and green chili is darn good , sort of warm like it should be , the red chili , add hot sauce and more chili pepper , not even close to the green chili. Best place for it is the Gila Indian reservation in Arizona.
Arizona lets me in there state , even lets me camp there.:lol:
Chuck.
Someday when I'm famous I'm going back to Temple , Texas and see if they will put up a Hysterical marker saying I was hatched out there.
Chuck one lunch we had was some garlic sausage pinto bean with jalapenos in them in a flower tortilla fast easy filling.
Ron
Ron
The Canadian lynx that has haunted me for years, still followed me to Texas. Damned cat is a ventriloquist, and snores like a real man. Ron never was able to track him, as has no other woodsman either. Sits just outside the firelight and purrs sometimes, sorta like a farting noise.
My boat is a kaynoe. It started life as a Pygmy Boats Osprey Standard kayak. Which boat, in my opinion, is a premier kayak. I don't get in and out of tight spaces as handily as I used to before the doc whittled on my knee, so I cut off about three feet of deck both fore and aft of the original cockpit opening. Then, I stacked up an inch and a half of 1/2" plywood, topped off with a 2" wide lip of thin plywood to construct a coaming around the new, longer cockpit. The coaming both wards off waves, and re-establishes the stiffness of the original design.
Tom, I fully concur with your observations about time and terrain. It took no imagination at all to see an observer - either afoot or mounted - atop any nearby bluff. I constantly thought, on tight turns and narrow stretches, how a single man with a bow and arrow would own the river and anyone in it. Watching stars and moon at night, seeing light from stars that have been dead over a thousand years, watching the countryside change as light moves about, is a soul filling set of experiences. I revel - simply am fulfilled - while in the Cathedral of the Great Outdoors. I, personally, confer with my Maker in the outdoors, never in a building. S/He cannot be contained in a man made structure. S/He soars about the skies, wades streams, roams through woods and fields, walks the prairies, and climbs mountains of a world S/He made.
Tom's left handed compliment about my BS'ing capabilities strikes true. But, I learned to BS a long time before I learned to spend tax payers' monies. And besides, on my desk, I kept a mark of my profession. I went to the nearby Tractor Supply Company, and bought a toy, John Deere manure spreader. I kept this on my desk, and took it with me to various field offices I worked in.
And, in any community in which I worked, I also walked a lot. Many of my customers would drive these same roads. As they passed they would invariably wave. And, dear friends, they always had all of their fingers extended. Never were any folded. I'm personally and professionally proud of that simple fact.
My boat is a kaynoe. It started life as a Pygmy Boats Osprey Standard kayak. Which boat, in my opinion, is a premier kayak. I don't get in and out of tight spaces as handily as I used to before the doc whittled on my knee, so I cut off about three feet of deck both fore and aft of the original cockpit opening. Then, I stacked up an inch and a half of 1/2" plywood, topped off with a 2" wide lip of thin plywood to construct a coaming around the new, longer cockpit. The coaming both wards off waves, and re-establishes the stiffness of the original design.
Tom, I fully concur with your observations about time and terrain. It took no imagination at all to see an observer - either afoot or mounted - atop any nearby bluff. I constantly thought, on tight turns and narrow stretches, how a single man with a bow and arrow would own the river and anyone in it. Watching stars and moon at night, seeing light from stars that have been dead over a thousand years, watching the countryside change as light moves about, is a soul filling set of experiences. I revel - simply am fulfilled - while in the Cathedral of the Great Outdoors. I, personally, confer with my Maker in the outdoors, never in a building. S/He cannot be contained in a man made structure. S/He soars about the skies, wades streams, roams through woods and fields, walks the prairies, and climbs mountains of a world S/He made.
Tom's left handed compliment about my BS'ing capabilities strikes true. But, I learned to BS a long time before I learned to spend tax payers' monies. And besides, on my desk, I kept a mark of my profession. I went to the nearby Tractor Supply Company, and bought a toy, John Deere manure spreader. I kept this on my desk, and took it with me to various field offices I worked in.
And, in any community in which I worked, I also walked a lot. Many of my customers would drive these same roads. As they passed they would invariably wave. And, dear friends, they always had all of their fingers extended. Never were any folded. I'm personally and professionally proud of that simple fact.
Tom
I am sorry I was reading some of the post and I flat missed yours , the concret and rebar is still there under the bridge I went ahead and scouted it but we ran it ok.
There is a lot of history on the Brazos and Jack an I talked about how one man on the bluffs could pin down an army on the river.
I know the guys on here get tired of me preaching about the winds on the Brazos but they will make a long day of it.
Ron
PS Thanks for all your help Tom
I am sorry I was reading some of the post and I flat missed yours , the concret and rebar is still there under the bridge I went ahead and scouted it but we ran it ok.
There is a lot of history on the Brazos and Jack an I talked about how one man on the bluffs could pin down an army on the river.
I know the guys on here get tired of me preaching about the winds on the Brazos but they will make a long day of it.
Ron
PS Thanks for all your help Tom
tx river rat said:
Progress ( from what I have read on here) today is that one guy in the control center for the Dam can do the same job. :roll:
Chuck.