Camping by canoe

I've often used the phrase "I'll paddle my own canoe." when discussing how I'll get "there". This past weekend I went with 5 friends on a two-day trip along 35 miles of the Colorado river of Texas, and I'm glad I paddled with the gang. Our float was not on THE Colorado, mind you, that one doesn't touch Texas, the one I'm speaking of is very familiar to Austinites because it meanders through downtown.
The trip's genesis occurred at the Crown one evening when James said, "I want to..." and I responded that I wanted to go on a canoe trip. Bang! Everyone that was there, was in.

While we originally planned to start just below the last dam in town, a little research proved useful, and we settled on a two day float which is recommended on the LCRA's website:
http://www.lcra.org/community/ecodev/crt/two_day_float.html
Their site is loaded with useful information to help you prep for the trip. Their river conditions showed a flow rate of between 900 and 1200 cfm. I called the office and was told that that equaled about about 2 mph, and up to 4 if you're actively paddling. (I have no idea why they don't provide the conversion to mph on their website, which would be very handy.)

We spent Friday evening camping in Buescher State Park in Smithville, TX. Saturday morning we dropped the Canoes amongst the carnies who were hosting the Jamboree Smithville carnival at the Vernon L Richards River Bend Park. We then drove three cars south to La Grange and left two of them at the public boat ramp. We returned to the carnies and set adrift.

The float was 100% authentic, Texas river. Silty water gently flowing through seemingly remote areas surrounded by either bluffs or pristine ranch land. We paddled into the Colorado's notorious head wind for 5 hours on Saturday, and we stopped on a small grass-covered island to camp. The Island was declared Jamesland, as he's quick to the punch.The LCRA suggests camping at Plum Park, but we decided to take advantage of the "bird in the hand" very cool little island we had happened upon. Tall grass was macheted short, tents were set up, and steaks, veggies and potatoes were grilled in an impressive campfire. Over night coyotes called in the distance, while, nearer by, barred owls called from the trees, raccoons wrestled and played in the shallows, while fish jumped and splashed in the water that was oh-so-close to my tent. I even saw a shooting star.

Sunday was a day spent, psychologically, somewhere between enjoying part 2 of the journey, and "get me the hell home". We paddled, thankfully, with no head wind for 6 hours. Along the way, shorter canoe and camping trips were mapped out amongst the new islands we saw, and we were all thankful that we'd skipped trying to find and camp at Plum Park.

Here's a map of our trip.

And here's a slide show:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54608357@N00/sets/72157623842795382/