Paddling the Upper Guadeloupe River is a sublime experience for a Sunday in April.  I have been camped for six nights near this crystal clear river as it winds its way south to the Gulf.  My campground is located north of San Antonio in the southern area of what is know as the Texas Hill Country.

     The country is green and beautiful with constant reminders poking out here and there of the underlying limestone. Limestone is used for building, from the tall buildings and the small Alamo in San Antonio to the ranch houses, churches, court houses, fence posts, gravel roads and entrance ways to the gated ranches.  Limestone is the basis for all of the building here.

     The Texas Hill Country is situated on the Edwards Plateau according to my physiography book which I bring along on all of my trips.  The plateau is over 100 million years old.  At one point most of Texas was under a shallow sea where sea shells and minute sea creatures laid down what became limestone.  Finally a surface bulge happened, pushed up from forces deep in the earth.  The Hill Country was uplifted. Then erosion by water carved these rolling hills much like what happened to form the Ozark's.

     I took a drive up to a scenic byway called the “Devil’s Backbone.” It was a circular route starting in a typical looking Texas town called Blanco.  I first stopped in Blanco for a delicious lunch at the Red Bud Cafe. The town square had a handsome limestone courthouse in its center. Around the four sides were small shops and antique stores.  There were numerous antique stores along the route also.

     This is grazing country for goats, sheep, cattle (longhorns and regular) and horses.  At one point the Hill Country was called the Mohair Capitol of the World.  Mohair comes from goats and was subsidized by the Federal Government. The ranchers had contracts from the government to produce mohair used in Army uniforms. As newer materials were introduced to make uniforms, the mohair industry lost its subsidies but continued as an important industry.  Every mile of the roadway is fenced with gates every few miles for the various ranches. It looks like a prosperous area and some enclaves are starting to be built as exclusive areas for homes.  The drive passed many ranches that presented like park lands.  Live oak trees predominated but there was no understory.  This intrigued me until I found out this was goat ranching territory and goats munch everything in sight up to the level their hind legs will take them. The cattle, sheep and horses benefit from the easy access to the open understory.  The ranches also do a thriving business during hunting season when they lease their land out for hunters. The income from hunting is probably more than from goats now.  The live oak trees prevalent are draped with millions of air plants which apparently don’t harm the trees.

     The back roads are well built and nicely paved but they have one idiosyncrasy that interested me.  Speed limits are from 45-65 mph and people drive fast here and there is nowhere to pull off as the roads are built without shoulders.  The roads are relatively flat but now and then dip dramatically.  Just before the dip is a sign which reads “Road may flood.”  Then before you can slow down the dip appears. At the bottom of the dip is a creek or a dry stream bed of an ephemeral stream.   Located at the bottom of the dip is a 6x6 post with a depth gage of up to 6 feet registered on it.  Apparently if you are a local and it is raining you know to slow down because storm surges build up rapidly and the roads flood regularly.  The streams become torrents.  The expense of putting in bridges for all of these features would be prohibitive!

     Geologically, when the bulge appeared a fault was created. The fault is called the Balcones Fault and runs for 400 some miles across the plateau.  The fault exposed numerous springs which feed the clear rivers. The Guadeloupe, Blanco and Medina Rivers all originate on the plateau. The rivers are clear and are lined by bald cypress which I first encountered in the wetlands along the Natchez Trace.  

     The drive to San Antonio was only about 45 minutes so I enjoyed a day in the city.  The historic Alamo, with its own park, is downtown and hunched down among the bigger buildings. The famed River Walk is also downtown. The river used to flood but flood gates were built and the banks of the river were formed into a park along both sides of the river.  Man-made canals have also been added to the River Walk and more are being built. The River Walk is sunken down below street level and is shaded by huge bald cypress.  There are shops and restaurants galore which have street level entrances but connect by stairs to the lower level in order to have a River Walk presence.  There are numerous access points to the River Walk and numerous arched pedestrian bridges span the river.  A river shuttle plies the river as do numerous narrated tour boats.  The day I was there was the start of a festival and the area was all a bustle. In addition to strolling and eating along the river walk I visited the Mexican Market.  The Market had two long buildings with a long courtyard in the middle. The courtyard was lined with food stalls offering up tacos and other Mexican foods plus huge turkey legs, funnel cakes and every kind of fruit juice and booze you could imagine. There was one drink which looked like a Bloody Mary but had the glass rim crusted with what looked like paprika. I did not try it!

     I had the tent camping area of the campground to myself until Friday night arrived.  Families piled out of twin cab pickups, the radios were cranked up to blare Spanish music and the volley ball games started. Kayaks and huge tubes arrived curtesy of the campground and the place became a huge summer picnic. I was surprised to see everyone swimming and splashing in the river. It is hard to imagine swimming in any river in April in the northeast! The campground rents the kayaks etc and runs pickups at 4, 8 and 14 mile locations.  I embarked on a 4 mile trip using a very small single person sit-on-top kayak. There were numerous small rapids and my little kayak was surprisingly responsive.  I am proud to say I negotiated the rapids quite well, remembering from my old canoeing days to locate the “V” in the current which signifies the “sweet spot” to enter the rapids.  Once set up with the sweet spot it is easy to steer through the rapids. I back paddle to go slower than the current. When doing rapids it is best to go either faster or slower than the current in order to have some steering control of the boat.  

     Having the river to myself was wonderful.  I could just let the current take me or just do a lazy paddle. The banks of the river were high and there were no buildings along the route.  My excursion took about two hours after which I was to call the campground for my shuttle ride back. My phone, however had lost its charge.  Luckily a family arrived at my take out point for a picnic along the river and I was able to use their phone. It was a glorious free sunny day.

     Traveling across Texas takes quite awhile. I drove west to Del Rio on the Rio Grande.  The route is basically flat with a small hill or two dotting the landscape. The road changed from four lane to two lane and at times had a 75 mph speed limit. I drove 150 miles and there was only one major town along the way.  Agriculture predominated until the town of Uvalde agriculture stopped and the landscape changed to a few trees with scrub. Ulvade is at about 100 degrees west and is at the expected limit of irrigated land in the west.  The homesteaders were lured to the western plains by several good years of rainfall.  Agriculture was good and over-planting ensued. Then the rains stopped.  The grasses covering the plains had deep stabilizing roots which went down over four feet but those grasslands were plowed up.  When the drouth hit, there was no grass to hold the soil so it became dust and blew away. Dust storms were seen as far away as Washington DC and New York. And so we had the Dust Bowl.  

     It has also been interesting to see the perfect grid pattern formed by the roads.  It is called the Section and Range System. Us geographers learn these things in cultural geography. The system stemmed from the US Public Land Survey System from back in the 1800’s.  A section is an area one square mile which contains 640 acres. That divided up into 36 sections makes a survey township.  When the US government was encouraging homesteaders they used the Section and Range System.  Sections were further broken up into quarter sections of 160 acres or a quarter-quarter which was 40 acres.  Apparently the smallest area of land that could be obtained was 40 acres. After the Civil War  there was a saying that freedmen could get ’40 acres and a mule.’  The road systems developed after the land was divided and ran along the section boundaries making a nice square road pattern that still exists today. 

     A mystery was solved for me on the ride to Del Rio.  Some ranches in the Hill country had extremely high fences and the same was true driving further west. Only some ranches had the high fences. Then it became clear when one ranch advertised for "trophy sized white tail." Ah ha. The high fences are to keep the deer in.  Us geographers also study things like the fact that white fences usually mean horses..........

     My next major stop after another day of driving will be Big Bend National Park. I will be there for a week and I am not sure there will be any wifi.  As a result I may go silent for awhile.