Colorado River in Texas

Trip Overview

Beautiful clear day on the Colorado River. Saw numerous ducks and wading birds. Wildflowers in full bloom. Enjoyed a quiet day, only met a couple other kayakers. Had pretty good flow in the river considering most of Texas is in a drought. There were a couple of places steady paddling was required due to the wind. Watch for normal hazards (rocks and trees).

Put in at FM 969 Bridge upstream of Bastrop. Good concrete boat ramp. 10:30 AM

Take out at Fisherman's Park in Bastrop, TX. New concrete boat ramp, very clean and secure park. 4:30 PM Shuttle service provided by Rising Phoenix.

Wilbarger Paddling trail. Length of trip was 14.9 miles as per GPS however the TPW Paddling Trail guide advertises it at 14.3 miles. 5.5 hours total on the trip which included one break of about half an hour.

Colorado River flow at Bastrop was 1800 cf/s. Good current most of the trip porvided a relaxing easy trip. There were times I had to paddle steadily going into the wind.

Accommodations:

Camping available at Bastrop State Park, other campgrounds are nearby.

Several inexpensive hotels are in Bastrop.

Fees:

No fees for the river usage.

Rising Phoenix charged a small fee for shuttle service.

Directions:

Put in at FM 969 Bridge upstream of Bastrop.

Take out at Fisherman's Park in Bastrop, TX.

Resources:

I used a topo map that I downloaded from GPSfiledepot.com

Also used my Garmin e-trex Legend hand held GPS.