SOF's on UGRA Lake

After a week of rainy and cool weather here in the Hill Country, we finally got a fairly warm afternoon with the sun at least trying to peek out from behind the clouds. So we got the two skin-on-frame kayaks, strapped them to the top of the truck, and off we went to the Upper Guadalupe River Authority lake.

This lake is really just a small impoundment on the Guadalupe river that is never more than a hundred yards wide or a couple of miles long, so up the river we went. Some day, I'm going to get a waterproof camera; I just could not bring myself to take a good digital out in a kayak. Maybe when I have a little more experience.

If I had taken a camera, I could have showed you pictures of the ducks that we herded or the two foot long white and orange fish that was swimming in the shallows. There are huge Cypress trees growing along the banks of the river, and in one we saw a large cable spool lodged about twenty feet up. Did I mention that it floods here peridoically?

We went about a mile and a half up the river before we had to turn back. The current at the upper end of the lake was too swift for us to get past a certain point, so we turned back. On the return trip, the wind picked up a bit, but the little boats behaved nicely. We took the breeze on the nose, but were easily able to keep going in a straight line. Had we been in our canoe, we would have struggled against the wind.

I was really happy with the way the second boat came out. I still plan to add some coaming around the cockpit, but the weight is just under 20 pounds, and it's a breeze to carry to the water and launch. It needs a 1" x 1" bottom runner like the one we put on Sandra's boat to keep it tracking in a straight line - that will help with wear on the canvas too.