Retro51

I drove to Bridgeport yesterday, about 80 miles from Granbury. I will put a more detailed report later, since I am planning to go back with my friend, but wanted to check it out first After reading about it, my plan was to head across the north part of the lake and find the river (Big Creek), see if I could go up it, and then float back down the river, and return across the lake. My logic was this: If I could paddle UP the river, the float back down would be effortless.

First, I only did a small section of the lake, so this could turn into many trips. But the guide I read said the rest of the lake was not good for such trips (he does them on a Jet-Ski/Personal Water Craft. I think the only reason I would want to go back and do more of the lake (not the river part) is to check out some islands that are in the lower part of the lake. Well, there is also a section off to the west that is separate and looks like it might be good for kayaking. The lake in general has lots of natural shoreline (wilderness shoreline) and even places where you could make land and explore, if you could beach the kayak and tie it up. So it looks like a great lake for exploration.

Back to this trip. I started at Wise County Park, near the boat ramp. Headed W/NW to where I thought the river would come in. Took a couple of false turns, and wound up exploring some bays. Was looking for a large island (called a hump on the map). Found an island and thout that was it, but it wasn't. The hump is actually huge, once I found it. Kept going to where the river was supposed to be. Found a marshland and a couple of bays- no river. Began to think it had dried up, until a motor boat passed me going all out and disappeared - up the river. So I then headed up river, for maybe 2 miles. I had found it, knew how to get there, and it's plenty big enough to explore, with mostly natural/wilderness shoreline. The writer said there was lots of wildlife, but I only saw birds. There are some houses going up along the river, so maybe this intrusion of man has cut down on the deer and so on, since the writer wrote the book.

The only situation that developed, is I was hoping to paddle up stream and float downstream back to the lake, but that didn't happen. I had to paddle hard both ways. It seemed like the river was flowing OUT of the lake. Not sure about that, but at any rate, it wasn't muich difference than paddling the lake, which I could handle. Be nice to have a lazy float with the river current for one of the directions, but my friend and I both like the exercise, so either way, I'm sure we'll be back. Now I know how to get directly to the river, and we can go up as far as we have time and deep enough water.

This particular trip is "Why" I enjoy kayaking: exploring, wilderness shoreline, exercise, discovering islands and rivers, and so on. I'm glad I found this one and will be back again.

The book mentions that you can also get to the Trinity from this part of the lake, but he wasn't able to do it before he wrote the book, due to low water. If that is as interesting as this part was, then that is all the more reason for this trip.