Hi folks. I am new to the forum, but have been doing wilderness canoe/camping trips for a number of years on Texas rivers. My children and I have had so much fun doing this I wanted to share the experiences and encourage other families to enjoy this great past time. I’ve started a series of videos about our trips. Here is the first one about searching for a campsite on the lower Brazos River. It is not common to canoe down here, but it is so close to home we decided to just check it out and see if we could find a good place to camp. Enjoy! I would be grateful for any new subscribers & for sharing the channel with other paddlers or potential paddlers.
Thanks.
We lived in Texas for 10 years.
near the San Jacinto below the Lake Houston dam.
I paddled the river a bit with the local paddling club. We mostly paddled Lake Houston.
Fellow Texan here, thanks for sharing, I’ll check it out. I’m in Fort Worth. I’ve done the upper Brazos from PK to Rochelles a couple times and really enjoyed it. Eventually I want to do PK to Granbury in one trip. Also, the Trinity River up here has some good sections that are an interesting mix of urban and nature. Part of Trinity recenty received a national paddling trail designation, Trinity River Paddling Trail - NRT Database.
And another (adopted) Texan…I’m in Austin so most of my river paddling has been on the Colorado, which is really enjoyable also, especially the different stretches from Austin down to La Grange - easy access points and plentiful nice campsites. The Neches is on my list but is a bit more of a drive from here! Matt - what would you recommend as a stretch of the Neches, for maybe a two day, 30 mile-ish stretch?
These days I’m more obsessed with the Gulf (I’m a kayaker), but I can definitely imagine a fall trip on the Neches!
The Trinity below lake Livingston is also a nice weekend trip, but like the Brazos, camp sites are a bit scarce and you really have to pay attention to the releases from the Lake. The DDRC did it last December while it was low(ish) and there were plenty of sandy beaches to camp on. We took out at FM 787, but it is really steep. The next one down at 105 is much better.
Yea, I grew up going to lake Livingston. I have not tried to paddle the river yet, but will try to do a trip soon. It has some nice big sandbars. I’d like to check out the upper Trinity as well.
@mickp The Neches from Shefield Ferry Rd to Evadale is about 40 miles and goes right through the heart of the Big Thicket National Preserve. I’ve done this trip maybe 15 times. I used to use Eastex canoes, but I think the guy retired and I’m not sure what is going on with the place. The lady at Shefield Ferry has started doing rentals and shuttle as well. I’ve used her once with a big group we took.
@Josh_76116 , @Paddlinpals - I appreciate the response. I’m planning a number of these videos but will probably wait until it cools down some. Crazy hot right now. I would be grateful if you subscribe to & share my YouTube channel. You can also find me on Twitter at TXRiverRunner.
Thanks.
@mickp Last year this time I couldn’t even get on the Neches because it was out of its banks, and this year it is abnormally hot for June. Go figure. I can share GPS coordinates of good campsites if you reach out on Twitter - TXRiverRunner
I’ll find good spots no doubt.