Brazos River in Texas

by  guest-paddler

A self-supported trip created by guest-paddler

Trip Overview

Possum Kingdom Lake to Lake Granbury

My brother-in-law and I paddled from the Hwy 16 bridge within view of Possum Kingdom Lake to Lake Granbury for a total of 123 miles on the Brazos River in N. Central Texas. The book "Goodbye to a River" by John Graves covers this same stretch of river but when he wrote the book Lake Granbury had yet to be dammed.

Our pace varied from as little as 8 miles a day up to 21 miles per day depending on if we were fishing, fossil hunting or just paddling. We camped 8 nights on some very beautiful beaches and sandbars along the way.

    In each kayak we carried
  • 2 - 2.5 gal water containers
  • 1 large duffel type bag (everything from tent to freeze dried meals)
  • 2 smaller carry containers (misc items)
  • tackle box and 2 poles

We pre-arranged to meet my father-in-law at mile 70 of the trip to refill our water containers at a public campground and he was kind enough to bring us McD's and hot coffee for breakfast :)

Along the way we found 2 fossils of coral - approx 100mil years old, 1 arrow-head, and possibly 1 spear-head. We saw many beautiful sites but one of the most amazing things we saw was a vividly colored Rat Snake sitting on top of a Red-Tailed Hawk!!! We guessed the hawk maybe bit off a bit more than he could chew

I created a 27 minute video of our trip and you can watch it here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=864903231780327545&q=123+mile+brazos&total=1&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

Outfitting:

Old Town Loon 120 kayak

Perception Acadia kayak

Fees:

We paid a $7 day use fee at the 70 mile mark to refill with water and hang out with the father-in-law for several hours.

Directions:

Drop in - 180 West out of Mineral Wells to Hwy 16 North until you cross the river, there is a loading/unloading area right there.

Get out - There are numerous bridges to get out but we chose a location in Lake Granbury where Hwy 4 crosses a small cove of the lake and there was a public boat ramp there.

Resources:

I used Google Earth to print out sections of the river and used that to keep track of our mileage from day to day.

Trip Details

  • Trip Duration: Extended Trip
  • Sport/Activity: Kayaking
  • Skill Level: Intermediate
  • Water Type: River/Creek (Up to Class II)

Trip Location