Paddling the River Frio

Choke Canyon is one of my favorite places to paddle, mainly because it is a place where three biomes come together and Mexican species, eastern and western species overlap here. The birding is magnificent; there are lots of different plants and animals and to top it off, it offers a variety of paddling opportunities and trips.

Every time I go, I have new experiences. This year was no exception. A group of seven of us from Houston, Corpus Christi, and San Antonio met there on Friday evening. Each of us either knew no one else or only knew a few others so we spent the evening getting to know each other around a campfire under a blaze of stars. Finally tiredness and the chilling air sent us to bed.

All of us slept in the next day and didn't start birding until 8:00. We stopped at the feeding area near the restroom and a host came out and put feed out for us. Immediately we saw three green jays, a first for me at this place, cardinals, pyroloxia, grackles and red-winged blackbird. A golden-fronted woodpecker dropped in along with yellow-rumped warblers. Even a rat came to the feast. Then we drove over to 75 acre lake and birded in that area. We met a birder who told us of a Great Kiskadee , another bird I had never seen there, but we were unable to find it. But we did find coots, moorehens, shovelers, black bellied and fulvous whistling ducks, gadwill, and lesser scaup as well as doublecrested cormorants, great blue herons, great egrets, snowy egrets. We also found American water pipits and Savanah sparrowsas well as a vermillion flycatcher. By the end of the weekend, we had found almost 60 species of birds. We were rewarded with a large flock of turkeys just across the road from out tents. It was almost noon on Saturday before we could drag ourselves away from birding to go kayaking.

Deer visiting our camp sites

Javilina visit

Winne photographing wild turkeys

Mother of thousands with yucca and catcus

We also enjoyed the plants around the park. This is in the plains area of Texas and is quite dry. Many plants grow there that we don't see in Houston. We particularly enjoyed the Mother of Thousands that was in bloom east of Ninety Acre Lake.

We decided to eat lunch in camp before starting out. First we reviewed our bird check lists and checked off all the birds we had seen. Then we decided to kayak from the westernmost boat launch on the Frio just east of the town of Tilden. This is called Bracken on the maps of the reservoir and has been closed for several years. My memories of it are of a narrow, twisting stream between very tall banks that has a fairly strong current west of the put-in so one cannot paddle very far upstream. But the scenery is beautiful and one can surprise all sorts of animals, including alligators, and birds. Once we came around a bend and found three tom turkeys sitting on a little ledge. They took off and flew in front of us to the next turn where they flew up to the land and disappeared. Another time we found a snake sunning itself on the very end of the log next to the very narrow passage. (We decided to just turn around and go back rather than disturb him.)

We arrived to find the place totally changed. This year the lake is holding the last drop of water before it overflows and it has backed up to this area and flooded it out as well. We saw no banks higher than about six feet and lots of side channels to confuse us or to enchant us. We got our boats in and gathered for a group picture before starting off. Then I sent Anna and Nancy ahead to be the leader and started paddling.

Suddenly there was a call, " Where's Winnie?" She was still at the put-in struggling with her spray skirt. After she caught up with us, we again started off and almost immediately heard what appeared to be an entire hive of bees. A tree was in bloom and so many bees were working it that we heard a really loud drone. We found two more of these beautiful trees along the stream. We were in a little side channel and had to turn out into the main river body where the stream widened considerably.

Our next stop was at Al's Rot Crotch Hole. A beautifully routed and painted sign nailed to a dead tree gave us this information. (I'm not sure I want to hear the story behind the sign). But we decided we needed to stop for a photo op because few people can claim to have been in Al's Hole.

Putting in at Breckenridge


Underway down the flooded river

The gang in Al's Crotch Hole

Winding through drowned trees

We wound our way through downed or just drowned trees, watching for snags just under the water. There were only a few fishermen in this area although large boats can put in from this place. This contrasted with the last few years when we put in at the highway 99 bridge. (We visited it on Sunday and found it totally full of fishing trailers with several boats in view at all times.). We enjoyed glimpses of a little alligator and lots of cormorants. The usual ducks were missing, probably because the water was too deep for the dabblers. We did see a flock of pelicans and lots of vultures. In fact, on the way back, we found a vulture roost that probably held around 500 of them.

We hoped to reach the San Miguel boat launch in the James E. Daughtrey WMA but didn't quite make it before it was time to turn around. Soon we were paddling in the golden light of late afternoon. We took some different paths on the way home and once got caught in a dead end slough and had to come out. The front paddlers were treated to the sight of a HUGE aligator as it ran off the land into the water and thrashed before it disappeared. I seemed like it took forever to come off the land, but it was only about 12 feet long. Soon after that, we came upon a huge vulture roost with still more vultures gliding in to stop for the night.

Our total trip was about eight miles. But this trip can be modified in several ways. One can just do a longer up and back, or even paddle to Highway 99 with a shuttle in place. This would be very easy to do as it is only a little out of the way to drop off a car or two. And there are other put-ins that can be utilized, depending on the kind of boats, skill of the paddlers, and length of trip desired. I haven't checked on what permits are required to enter from the WMA.

On the way back we stopped to get good looks at the pair of nesting great horned owls that were about one-fourth of a mile past the park gates. One parent was on the nest while the other sat in a tree about one hundred yards away, giving us a clear view of it. We got back to camp just in time to enjoy beer and sangria, complements of Ann, and enjoy watching the day end. Clouds were coming in and we didn't get a sunset. Then we cooked our suppers and gathered around a fire to visit until we all went to early beds under a cloudy sky.

The next morning we enjoyed deer and javalina in our camp sites while packing up and eating breakfast. Then we decided to paddle from Mason Point, the first put-in west of the camp, and paddle up towards the Highway 99 bridge. This was another new place for me to paddle so I gave an impromptu lesson on navigation as I figured out how to paddle before we put in. I put Tracy in charge of leading us since she was the only one with a compass on her kayak. Without a depth finder, we couldn't find the channel but we were able to paddle west, than north on the way out and southeast coming back because we really could paddle anywhere. We paddled through the very tops of groups of drowned trees. On the way back, we disturbed several hundred cormorants that were sitting in a group of trees. They took of with a roar. Soon after that, we saw our first osprey of the trip and got to watch him fly off with a fish. But both because we were late getting organized and on the water and because the weather was deteriorating, we had a very short paddle before heading back. We all agreed that we enjoyed the paddle on Saturday the best because we had so many new views as we wound down the twisting river while here, we could see all the places we paddled from the shore.

Part of the huge vulture roost

Almost Back

Best times to visit: I always visit in February to get the wintering sandhills and ducks. Spring might also be nice for nesting Mexican birds. Summer is proably too hot but late fall will also be nice. But winter is the best time to see the most species.

Trip Report : Paddling from Highway 99 Bridge

Choke Canyon Park Info and Directions: You can also start here to make your reservations. We always stay in the trailer (electric) area because there is only one excellent tent site and 3 or 4 more good ones. So if you get a tent site, you are often jammed together around the fish cleaning station with noise and bright lights all night. And you get more wild animals in your camp site on the electric side.

Maps: I use a fishing chart for the reservoir. It also shows all the boat launches. You can buy the map at the store just before the entrance to the park.

Weather Info