Camping & tubing the San Marcos River

Sam fishing at Onion Creek in McKinney Falls State Park where we camped this past weekend. We fished a bit on Sunday morning and he caught one largemouth bass and let it go. It was about a foot long. Sam had hoped to do more fishing and to fish in a clear stream like the San Marcos (where we tubed the day before) but I didn't realize Onion Creek wasn't a clear stream like the San Marcos, Comal etc. Next time!

This past weekend I took Sam, his friend Brent, and Doug to the Texas Hill Country to camp and to tube down the San Marcos River. I hadn't gone tubing since I was in high school which was waaaay too many years ago. I had only tubed down the Guadalupe and Comal Rivers, both of which are nearby so this was a nice new adventure. There has been a major drought in the area, so the water level is low, and the flow was slow, but a big surprise awaited us at the end of the 40 minute or so float... a set of 3 created rapids, and drops, which were sooo much fun! You could go as many times as you wanted. When we got to the end, we went down the rapids with and without tubes several times, and then after a while, we took the water taxi back to the beginning where we floated one more time down. It was absolutely perfect tubing weather - nice and hot - which is good because the water is chilly especially at first! It's certainly not near as cold as, say, California's Merced River in Yosemite or any glacial fed lake so I told Sam to buck up and jump in! Once you're in it felt great.

After we floated down twice, we dried off and went to eat at the San Marcos River Grill & Pub, which sits on the river right overlooking the rapids. I'd smelled the burgers while tubing on the rapids and it made me hungry for burgers!! We sat down in the open bar area overlooking the river and the service was sooooo slow, and I had to basically get everything myself (literally the bartender was the only waitstaff for about 25 people)... BUT the food was great! Then we headed back to the park and crashed. Oh Sam made a small campfire and Brent & Sam made S'mores but I wasn't even hungry anymore. In the morn we went fishing a bit and then headed home. The kids had a great time tubing!! It was to celebrate Sam's 13th birthday which was a couple weeks ago.

Tomorrow I leave for Bozeman, Montana - I can't wait! Oh, we used a waterproof camera to take some tubing pics and I'm going to pick it up later from the photo place so hopefully I'll upload a couple of them too. Your good thoughts and prayers are much appreciated for me while I travel and WRITE my book the next weeks!

A view of the falls at the park.
Sam hooked a turtle, and Doug removed the hook and we let it go!

Sam Brent & Doug fishing Onion Creek
Sam fishing on the bank of Onion Creek Sunday morn, near some large bald cypress trees.
Another view of the falls on Onion Creek.
Sam and his daddy at his 13th birthday party last weekend.
The boys celebrate winning the fort building contest! That's Sam on the far left - you can barely see his face but it's proof he does smile in real life! (he almost never smiles for photos!)

bats bridges camping and enchanted rocks

Gorman Falls at Colorado Bend State Park, Texas Hill Country.
Copyright (c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp

I feel bad about not blogging more. Funny how it comes in waves. My Animal Planet blog and my book and the kids have kept me triple busy!! I had several flashes of insight in the past week though! I can't remember them though, probably because it's 240am!

I am super excited about going on a ROAD TRIP tomorrow with Doug! It's our first trip together, and my first trip anywhere in a long time. Needless to say, I feel like I'm long overdue. It started as a planned camping trip, but then I ended up landing a couple of assignments. I love when that happens! So that makes it a business trip per se, but as always a total blast of a business trip - lots of outdoor adventures!

I'm writing one article on bats, and one general travel article. The plan is first to head to Austin, eating dinner at the coolest restaurant - Vivo - that my friend Deb introduced me to last time I went there and visited, and then head downtown to walk around a bit. Then we'll meet up with a biologist from Bat Conservation International just prior to the big event - the emergence of nearly one million Mexican freetail bats that roost in the Congress Avenue Bridge over Town Lake. I've seen the amazing spectacle twice now, but it's Doug's first trip to Austin and probably first time seeing a vast cloud of bats ascend into the night sky, so I know this will be quite an exciting event for him to see it for the first time. I will be doing a podcast live from the bat scene for Discovery Channel Earth Live as I did previously for cassowaries in Mission Beach, Australia and sharks in the Coral Sea. (Even though I'll record it live, the producer edits it and it will go online sometime next week or so... I'll be sure to post a link!)

Next is a drive to Frederickburg, the quaint little German town a little more than an hour away from Austin. We will stay in a hotel the first night - the Fredericksburg Inn & Suites which is set on 5 acres and next to a historic landmark. They have a hot tub!! I am hoping we make it there before they close it at 11pm. The next morning we have some wiggle
room but I want to try to do the 2pm hike to Gorman Falls at Colorado Bend State Park. The waterfall there is absolutely breathtaking. We took that hike and camped in that park with Sam's middle school class a couple years ago, and
I wrote about part of that camping trip in my firefly article that I wrote. We then have to make it to set up our tent at Enchanted Rock State Park, and then head to Old Tunnel Wildlife Management Area to see an even bigger emergence of bats - this time 3 million! It's right next to the Alamo Springs Cafe which has gotten reviewed positively in the New York Times, and some reviewers have even said they have the best burgers in Texas. A colleague recommended it to me before I checked out their website, so I decided I just have to try it for myself. (Pic from the top of Enchanted Rock at sunset to the right, Copyright (c) 2006 Wendee Holtcamp)

Sunday we will climb Enchanted Rock - which only takes an hour - and explore around the park a bit. Then we have to hit Lyndon B. Johnson National Historic Park and the Sauer-Beckmann Living History farm on the way home. I've never been there! Most of the places we are going to I've been, other than Old Tunnel WMA and LBJ, so it will be fun showing Doug some of my favorite places from the Hill Country. The weather is supposed to be gorgeous, so I hope that holds!