Spring Break on the River

Regular readers of this column may recall that the arrival of Spring Break usually means a trip on the Colorado River for the Wick family.

The excitement was building as we planned for a twoday overnight trip from Plum Park to La Grange.

This was going to be the first time for our 8-year-old to go along, and I even talked my wife into going.

We borrowed enough kayaks (thanks to my brother) and were dragging out camping supplies from the far corners of the attic.

Then we noticed the weather forecast and it kept getting more and more threatening.

Our planned overnight on an island in the middle of the river last Friday was looking more and more like a thunderstorm survival exercise.

With my wife unable to change her day off, we decided to shorten the trip into a half day excursion Friday, right in the middle of morning and afternoon predicted storms. We launched from Northside Park in La Grange (easily the most little-used park in town, but so beautiful). The river was lovely, the water as clear as I ever remember.

We leisurely floated down, the five us, also with our two small dogs perched on the kayaks.

The guys working on the Highway 71 business bridge stopped working to wave as we passed below.

We stopped on a sand bar for lunch and played around in the water – a little too long it turned out. As we approached our take out at White Rock Park, a hard rainstorm hit, with thunder cracking all around.

Behind us we saw another rain-soaked group. La Grange head football coach Kyle Cooper and his two sons were making the same trip. They said they had caught a bunch of Guadalupe bass.

In the downpour we all hauled the kayaks up the muddy zig-zag of the trail up to the park – a short, but memorable, spring break river trip.