A Few months back my friend Andy called and wanted to plan a kayak trip sometime in April or May. We tossed around a few stretches we'd like to try before ultimately settling on the 20.6 +/- mile stretch of Village Creek just outside of Silsbee. He would driving down from Dallas and I would make the trip east from San Antonio; each driving about 4.5 hours. We reserved a campsite at Village Creek S.P. starting Thursday night through Sunday so we could leave our vehicles at the state park. A month out I started planning and looking over Google Earth for campsites and create a river mileage map.
The Tuesday before the trip I put together the meal plan and prepared breakfast and dinner for each day on the creek. The first night would be jambalaya, then bacon hash for breakfast, Shepherd's pie on the second night, and finish the trip with skillet biscuits with sausage gravy. Meals were portioned out, vacuum sealed, and frozen if possible.
On Wednesday night I packed my gear up and loaded my truck. One thing that makes the Ride 135 such a great camping kayak is the amount of storage available inside the kayak within the pontoons. I whipped a tether system so I could slide gear down each side to lower the center of gravity and more evenly distribute the weight. It works great.
Thursday rolled around and Andy took the entire day off for this trip. I worked an almost full day at the office and hit the road around 3 pm. Right as I was leaving I got this picture.
I rolled into the campground around 8:30, relieved to have driven through minor traffic in San Antonio and Houston. We talked a bit more about the upcoming day over some cold “sodas” and went to bed pretty early.
