Hey yall,
Looks like I'm headed back down the Brazos this weekend for the 20 miler to Rochelle's. I'll be "leading" the trip with the wife and a few other couples who aren't exactly river experts, as in this will be their first overnight kayaking/canoe river trip.
I did this stretch back in July and had no problems other than my usual camp spots being taken. Flow was around 270cfs back then and now it's 75cfs, but should still be ok other than having to get out in a few spots.
Any advice for me as to what I should take that I don't normally?(again, a few of these never camp much less on a river) Weather should be fantastic this weekend.
Also, I'm fairly familiar with this stretch, but I've always wanted a handheld GPS that could show me exactly where I am on the river and how many miles I've traveled to help with knowing when to hustle or not. I have something similar on my phone, but cell coverage is limited on that stretch, so if you have advice on an affordable handheld GPS that would be great.
Wish me luck and thanks for the help!
GPS and Brazos Trip Advice
Re: GPS and Brazos Trip Advice
Rochelles web site has a map you could print out. Its not great but it would help some.
Re: Brazos Trip Advice - Trip Update
Well, this was an adventure this weekend.
Doesn't hurt when you have two canoes and 5 yetis between the group. Needless to say, we had more than enough to eat and drink.
We took the Rochelle's shuttle at 8am at Saturday, of course with Rochelle's it's a very soft 8am. I think we got on the river around 9:15.
Headwinds were at a minimum compared to when we did this stretch in July. In fact most of the time it was to our back, opposite of last trip when it felt like fighting 25+mph headwinds and cussing the entire time in those long wide stretches. Definitely better this time.
One again, the only slight annoyance of this trip was finding a great camp site, I think we're just picky. We had our eye on the island before the big rocks, but taken of course. If that was taken, we would go to the spot across from the big rocks...not taken, but TONS of trash. Unreal how people can leave a campsite like this, so we decided to head down a bit. After checking out a couple other spots and with a little imagination, we found a great campsite near some little rapids. I'd say about 13 miles down, making for an easy second day paddle.
Left the cooking up to the wives, they did us right with gourmet hot dogs and corn on the cob for dinner. Pretty awesome night to sleep as well, until...
With 0% rain chance as of Saturday morning, none of had any thoughts of rain. Well, at about 4am we woke up to rain drops and it started coming down pretty good moments later...luckily I knew exactly where the rest of the tent was and we had the rain fly up in what seemed like less than minute, so minimal soaking occurred. Rained for about an hour...pretty exciting times for sure though.
Sunday, we did breakfast tacos...as we're eating a deer runs up to our campsite from the river, looked to be running from something as she didn't even see us until she was about 10 yards away. Both parties were equally surprised. The paddle was EASY as the winds started to turn up, but all to our back. Some stretches I didn't even paddle other than to keep me straight. We were off the water by 12:30pm.
As far as flow goes...it was definitely lower than July, but not a ton. July we didn't get out at all, I counted 3 times total when we had to get out and walk, but not far at all.
Doesn't hurt when you have two canoes and 5 yetis between the group. Needless to say, we had more than enough to eat and drink.
We took the Rochelle's shuttle at 8am at Saturday, of course with Rochelle's it's a very soft 8am. I think we got on the river around 9:15.
Headwinds were at a minimum compared to when we did this stretch in July. In fact most of the time it was to our back, opposite of last trip when it felt like fighting 25+mph headwinds and cussing the entire time in those long wide stretches. Definitely better this time.
One again, the only slight annoyance of this trip was finding a great camp site, I think we're just picky. We had our eye on the island before the big rocks, but taken of course. If that was taken, we would go to the spot across from the big rocks...not taken, but TONS of trash. Unreal how people can leave a campsite like this, so we decided to head down a bit. After checking out a couple other spots and with a little imagination, we found a great campsite near some little rapids. I'd say about 13 miles down, making for an easy second day paddle.
Left the cooking up to the wives, they did us right with gourmet hot dogs and corn on the cob for dinner. Pretty awesome night to sleep as well, until...
With 0% rain chance as of Saturday morning, none of had any thoughts of rain. Well, at about 4am we woke up to rain drops and it started coming down pretty good moments later...luckily I knew exactly where the rest of the tent was and we had the rain fly up in what seemed like less than minute, so minimal soaking occurred. Rained for about an hour...pretty exciting times for sure though.
Sunday, we did breakfast tacos...as we're eating a deer runs up to our campsite from the river, looked to be running from something as she didn't even see us until she was about 10 yards away. Both parties were equally surprised. The paddle was EASY as the winds started to turn up, but all to our back. Some stretches I didn't even paddle other than to keep me straight. We were off the water by 12:30pm.
As far as flow goes...it was definitely lower than July, but not a ton. July we didn't get out at all, I counted 3 times total when we had to get out and walk, but not far at all.
Re: GPS and Brazos Trip Advice
Sounds like you had a good trip. pictures always enjoyed. 
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larry long shadows
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Re: GPS and Brazos Trip Advice
Thanks for posting ..need food pictures 