Texas Whitewater: A follow-up, Part 1

Texas Whitewater: A Follow-Up on Challenges Texas Paddlers Face (Part 1)

By Zach Schiada

a Carolina Paddler article

∞  I recently wrote a book report about Texas Whitewater by Steve Daniel. Although the book is detailed on the multiple barriers to enjoying Texas streams, subsequent responses from Texas paddlers led me to believe paddling Lone Star whitewater is more challenging than I had thought. I always assumed Texas had a drier climate than North Carolina, limiting paddling throughout the year. I was not aware of the other challenges Texas paddlers deal with to enjoy the sport. Parking, access closures, disappearing water, boat bans and selective law enforcement have also been major challenges. Daniel’s description of the top three whitewater runs in the state reveal issues preventing paddlers from annually enjoying them. I figured I would dig in a bit to learn more about the state I lived in until I was 9 years old.

If I am unfamiliar with a specific area and the whitewater it offers, I’ll start by researching the rivers on American Whitewater. In the case of Texas rivers and creeks, many are not updated frequently. Some popular runs are noted as having disputed or changed access since Daniel’s book was published.The lack of regular updates is sometimes intentional as we’ll see. At times, trips have become covert and trip information is shared privately between crews rather than in a public forum such as AW. As an outsider, it would appear that whitewater paddling in the state is dying in comparison to the days when Texas Whitewater was written, but through grit and stealth, paddlers have managed to keep whitewater paddling in the state alive. In order to see what I might have been up against had I never moved to North Carolina, I decided to speak to a few paddlers who live or have lived in Texas. They filled in the gaps on what they paddled and what challenges they faced to enjoy their creeks and rivers. This writing, part 1 of 2, will be about paddlers who have since moved out of state. Part 2 will share information gleaned from current Texas paddlers. Although differences of experience between the two are minimal, I’ve noticed a slight cultural shift from paddlers who previously lived in the state and those who are still living in Texas.

Jim Clarke – North Texas

I’ve paddled with Jim a few times since he lives nearby in central North Carolina. He’s been paddling for decades and is a great source of historical information on local rivers. I’ve also paddled with Jim’s son, Ben, a couple of times and they are always pleasant company. Jim lived in McKinney, Texas from 2004 to 2014 and had a chance to meet Steve Daniel, the author of Texas Whitewater at Hidalgo Falls on the Brazos River.

Jim’s experience paddling the northern part of Texas where he lived was less of a headache than those who paddled other parts of the state. He described the main challenge is a lack of steady rain, especially once June comes around. His other challenge was finding folks to paddle whitewater with him. He did manage to recruit a coworker who wasn’t an experienced paddler, but at least was adventure-minded.They mainly stuck to runs on the Trinity River drainage.

Occasionally, Jim would travel several hours to paddle Arkansas rivers such as the Cossatot or the Mulberry. Within Texas, his local go-to run was White Rock Creek. In its upper section, he said that he had a lot of fun on a nice ledge drop. Once a golf course went in, access to the upper was more difficult. Jim ran the lower section mainly, a fast, fun ride. He also would head to Rowlette Creek for a decent challenge and would occasionally get over to Denton Creek and the Clear Fork of the Trinity. While he did not have any major issues with access or threatening landowners, he did have an experience where he was hassled while on a flatwater trip on the Red River. During his bike shuttle, Jim was forced to park about a half mile away from the takeout. He later heard gunshots from people downstream firing into the river. He shouted to make his presence known as he paddled by the shooters.

Jim doesn’t regret missing any paddling opportunities. He had the local creeks and day trips to Oklahoma and Arkansas when he had the itch for more of a challenge. He also managed to get a couple trips on the Rio Grande while he lived in Texas. Jiim enjoys his time in North Carolina, but he does miss the stars and constellations at night and the Austin City Limits festival.

Eric Juday – North Texas

I have not yet had the chance to paddle with Eric. He lives close enough and has a similar interest in exploring little creeks, so our paths will cross inevitably. He’s been paddling for decades and has stories of paddling all over the country. Eric lived in Arlington, Texas from 1990 to 2000. Like Jim Clarke, he made many trips to Oklahoma and Arkansas in pursuit of more challenging whitewater.

He has specific memories of paddling in Arkansas on the five falls of the Cossatot and on the Eagle Fork and Mountain Fork in Oklahoma. He mentioned seeing sandy waves crash over and over again on the Washita River when he paddled it during a flood.

In terms of Texas whitewater, he didn’t face many obstacles where he was paddling, mainly in the northern part of the state. What he did find in many of the smaller creeks was poor water quality. Streams like Duck Creek, White Rock Creek and Johnson Creek could be nasty with water coming from city runoff. He also recalled a feature mentioned in Texas Whitewater, a ledge on Johnson Creek as it passes through Six Flags amusement park. Eric described it as “weird with broken concrete and rebar”.

One run that he enjoyed was the Paluxy River. The Paluxy has miles of riverwide surf waves and is an excellent place for folks to learn how to paddle whitewater. He had a similar description of the Bosque River, although it was less exciting. He occasionally would head down to the more dependable, spring fed San Marcos. It offered a beginner-friendly run where he would take new paddlers. He had few issues with landowners on the runs he normally did in Texas. Eric mentioned the only time he’s had a gun pulled on him was at Hunting Creek in North Carolina. He believes that since he mostly stuck to regularly paddled rivers in Texas, this was probably the reason for no run-ins with landowners, law enforcement and cattle fences. His biggest challenge was chasing the rain.

 

Darrell Commander

Darrell lives in Western North Carolina now, but paddled in Texas for nearly twenty years. He added many runs from Daniel’s book to the American Whitewater page. Darrell served on the American Whitewater Stream Team in Texas for eight years. He tells me Texas paddlers never really have an ideal rain situation where lots of whitewater options present themselves. Instead they need to “turn lemons into lemonade”.

Savvy Texas paddlers are very familiar with weather patterns and the complicated river systems so they can plan ahead and make quick decisions rather than wait around and check gauges. After a quick decision on short notice is made for a trip, they are prepared to quickly pivot to somewhere else in case initial predictions prove wrong. Even a creek that has water when you put on can lose water before you take off, requiring a hike out. The creeks tend to “flash & crash” quickly. Sometimes the complex geology and limestone bedrock can swallow the water and take it downstream underground. He says this has happened to him when running a smaller Hill Country creek.

In response to my book report, Darrell provided an excellent overview of paddling whitewater in Texas during the years he lived and paddled there. It’s worth checking out. Darrell sums up the general problem with Texas whitewater paddling as a lack of regular opportunities to get in practice and progress beyond class II. He also noted the lack of a rafting industry to help promote the sport with the general public. With few whitewater rivers to paddle regularly, it is difficult to reach the skill level needed to paddle many of the runs listed in Daniel’s book when the rain finally comes. It requires pushing your limits for the more difficult runs after long periods since your last trip. Running sketchy creeks in less than ideal situations is part of a river runner’s progress, but placing an inexperienced paddler in such a situation can lead to mishaps. The few places that allow for regular paddling, Darrell mentions, are mostly overtaken by river tubers, which forces whitewater paddlers to get on the river at times even less visible to the public. This lack of visibility and the cultural understanding of whitewater paddling leads authorities to lump those with the skill and gear to run whitewater safely with someone recklessly getting on the river who might need later rescue. Despite the state laws allowing for navigability on a variety of streams, he explains local fire departments sometime issue boating bans or close off public accesses, further discouraging a growth of the sport.

He mentioned Barton Creek as his top place to go. He states, “If Barton ran all the time, there would be a booming rafting industry in Austin.” It’s a popular place for whitewater boaters, offering class III/III+ rapids right in the heart of Austin, while still appearing natural due to the greenbelt that surrounds it. It faces two modern challenges for paddlers. One he mentions is the surrounding private and commerical development and the impermeable surfaces in the area. This causes Barton to flow less frequently, for shorter durations, and with worse water quality. The other is a boating ban, which only allows paddling the creek at low flows, below what would be an optimal whitewater level. Pushback from the whitewater community has improved the situation a little, but Darrell thinks the best water conditions for the creek are still considered to be off limits for whitewater paddlers. In the same area, he mentions Walnut and Little Walnut as runs that he enjoyed, but they were harder to catch and the water quality is questionable.

When the water was up, Darrell would also paddle the Lower Llano River and Upper Pedernales River. These, he explains, are great for big water paddling, but face similar challenges to those of Barton Creek.  Despite the fact that these streams are unquestionably navigable by statute, he cites multiple incidents in which he and others were questioned by law enforcement at the put-in, were cited for trespassing at the takeout despite using a public highway easement, were followed by firefighters on the riverbank yelling at them to take out, and had TV cameras shoved in their faces at the takeout. He says the rivers in question were higher than normal but not flooding (out of their banks) when these incidents occurred. (Whitewater kayakers do not typically run flooded rivers, because floods make for poor whitewater.)

Although Darrell mostly paddled in Central Texas, he did manage to get in a trip on a southwest Texas rarity, the Devil’s River (Rio Grande tributary). It requires careful planning or an expensive shuttle run. He calls the river a true desert oasis, but despite the river having more water than usual for his trip, it was a bit of a “suffer-fest” with multiple shallow rapid areas following by deeper crystal blue pools. A few more inches of water would have made for a better trip, but he mentions his experience was better than what most paddlers find there. Below Pafford Crossing, the river widens and the runnable water ends. They had to hike a few miles to reach the water of Lake Amistad, which was also low. It would have been a miserable trip to the takeout, but they were fortunate to receive a boat ride to the marina.

Darrell says he always wanted to get on the Frio, Paluxy, Middle Bosque and Lower Pedernales in that order. He would have loved to run Crabapple Creek, but the issues surrounding that run are highly problematic. He mentioned the exploratory paddling, like what Steve Daniel did, still happens. The information gained on scouting runs is shared privately between paddlers to avoid potential conflicts with landowners who dispute the statutory navigability of nearby streams. Providing beta for such runs is difficult because features change frequently from flooding. New construction of dams affect runs, most notably with Cherokee Creek and North Grape Creek.

Roy Harris – Central Texas 

Roy Harris is the paddler that I snipped a still photo from his Youtube video on Crabapple Creek for my book report. He now lives in Asheville, but has traveled all over the country in pursuit of his hobby. When he lived in Texas, he caught a few rare gems, including the notorious Crabapple Creek, which he has run twice; once without issue and another time where he was charged with trespassing. The significance of his ticket is that he and friends hoped that it would reach a court case, establishing statutory navigability since its average width is over 30 ft from GIS data, but the authorities dropped the charges, not allowing him to have his day in court. He was prepared to fight for access with convincing data gathered to present his case. There are many paddlers in Texas of the opinion this is a coordinated effort to not allow the precedent to be set that Crabapple is a legal creek for navigation. Getting a ticket and then having charges dropped, he believes, is the landowner’s way of keeping things as is, but making it a miserable experience for those who paddle it.

It’s not all negative experiences though he said. He says that he began paddling in Texas about ten years ago with the Rio Vista Park being a great place for him to hone his skills for whitewater. The reliable flows in the crystal clear spring water and surprising amount of features in such a convenient location close to both Austin and San Antonio made it a frequent place to go to practice ferrying and surfing. He mentioned that the Guadalupe River near New Braunfels was also a good place he’d frequent. It needed a bit more water than the San Marcos, but ran somewhat regularly. With experience gained from these reliable rivers, he said the next step for most was the Llano and Pedernales, which run sometimes and offer big water features. There are also other opportunities to step up. Pedernales Falls, which he describes as the first class IV many paddlers have access to in Texas is a lot of fun. Roy said there is a  challenging ledge followed by some slides and this section is runnable at lower levels more often than the rest of the river. Onion Creek, specifically at Teardrop Falls, was another step-up he mentioned as a good opportunity for paddlers to progress.

In terms of challenges for paddlers, Roy mentioned that the comparison between North Carolina and Texas is like night and day. Although Texas has laws to protect navigability, he mentioned it is not uncommon to find barbed wire fences or unsanctioned dams since landowners believe their personal property includes the land and streams, despite the state law indicating differently. He also mentioned the difficulty in progressing in Texas despite the great opportunities that arise when there happens to be water. He explains that he and Chris Brymer  had a rare chance to paddle the Lake Buchanan Spillway, one of the class V runs in the state, which does not often have enough water spilling over to run. They did fine, carefully running sneak lines down, but it was a challenge. He explained that Texas paddlers rely a lot on El Niño years to get the most out of the state, otherwise paddling is catching the quick flash of water that is oftentimes difficult to be ready for. He also mentioned the challenge of new dams affecting some runs. Private property owners will put in dams or road crossings, which are illegal, on navigable streams without a state-issued permit.

As far as rarities that he paddled, in addition to the already mentioned Crabapple Creek, he also had a chance to run Mexican Creek, which requires Lake Medina to be full and runs only a handful of times in a decade. One of the other rare runs he managed was Dry Frio River. He said it was all class II-III with read and run fun with many wavetrains until they reached Twilight, a series of class IV drops. The drops snuck up on them. One friend decided to get out and scout, but got needles in his leg from cactuses by the river. He and his other friend had to just roll with it and commit. The drop was noted as a ten foot waterfall, but the 15,000 cfs of flow on their trip, made it a fluffy ledge with a violent curler followed by massive holes.They made it through okay, but it was a shock compared to what they had expected to find.

Roy said he loves living in Asheville now, especially being so close to the Green River, which was a major motivation for his move out of state. He echoed other Texas paddlers who have moved away to find easier access to whitewater. Roy is still very passionate about the state and cares deeply about his home rivers and community. He doesn’t see any end in sight to the issues at Crabapple, but maybe there is hope with organizations like American Whitewater. The nearby attraction, Enchanted Rock, might bring other interested groups to lobby for access. Roy would love to get back to Crabapple, if the landowner issues are ever resolved, but he’s not holding his breath. He mentioned the Blanco Narrows as a gem he didn’t get to paddle. It requires many miles of paddling to reach the Narrows section and he just couldn’t make it there during his time in Texas.

Chris Brymer – Central Texas

On the subject of people ticketed for paddling Crabapple, I spoke to Chris Brymer, who was also on the fateful trip and treated to a ticket. He has a few videos of Texas whitewater and other well known rivers on his YouTube channel. They are worth checking out. Since his wife is in the military, he has since moved a couple of times since his days in Texas, but he gained a lot of experience there, including a few rare runs.

Chris mentioned the same challenges as others, but said there are stealthy ways to get around many boating bans. He wished he’d learned this sooner. When bans were in effect, he had other options to paddle such as Onion Creek. Onion Creek had landowner disputes in the past, but he didn’t have any problems since he stayed low key. He said it is not uncommon to be getting ready to put on for a high water run and see police. They won’t keep you off the river, but they give paddlers a hard time. The police are aware of paddlers’ rights, but they will strongly discourage paddling high water.

In looking for alternative accesses, Chris said you might need to pay someone to park on their land. This is not uncommon. He has work-arounds for many runs that are otherwise off limits. Simply putting in or taking out at different spots. Parking farther from the river. He mentioned this specifically as a way to avoid problems on the Guadalupe River, which gets banned from time to time by the city of New Braunfels.

Chris recounted his story of getting into trouble at Crabapple Creek. He and his friends had been looking for a chance to run a local waterfall but it didn’t have enough water. Instead, they headed to Crabapple. Since they started later than ideal, the river drops were more slides, but still scrapey fun through the gorge. At the takeout, his truck was nowhere in sight. They called the local tow truck operator who informed them the truck was there, but the game warden needed to be contacted before it could be released. This resulted in Chris getting a ticket.

During this time Chris met a mystery man from the Gauley area who was traveling through on his way to California for a guiding job. The fellow hoped to paddle the steep creek but didn’t get to Crabapple in time. He did give Chris a ride to the tow yard. The guy knew Crabapple and said it runs more than most Texas whitewater and the pink granite and slidey run were unique in the state.

Chris had information on Mexican Creek too. The Medina Ranch Association has private security that sometimes hassles paddlers. Posts on the AW page mention this. As a side note, this particular creek, which Steve Daniel calls the “best run in Texas”, is an ongoing discussion for the whitewater community with some who prefer to run it very openly in hopes of drawing attention to the access issues and others preferring to just keep a low profile.

Regarding disputed runs, Chris felt keeping a low profile and finding alternatives were the key to avoiding run-ins, which are inevitable sometimes. As far as public perception is concerned, he hasn’t seen a whole lot of progress in his years paddling in the state. He mentions a friend who paddled the Llano when it was high and submitted a video to the local news with comments on how competent paddlers can safely run high water. Instead, the news media used his clips to paint whitewater paddlers as thrill seekers that are pursuing a dangerous hobby.

Many of the challenges described in Texas Whitewater are echoed by those who have paddled the state since its publication. In many cases, access to various streams is now worse. In addition to sharing paddling information about a state where I spent my childhood, these articles are perhaps beneficial for those outside of Texas. Barriers to access could happen to Southeast rivers if we do not remain vigilant as a community. With the recently proposed “bridge ban” and threats to access on Boone Fork and Upper Watauga, we are not immune to similar barriers to enjoying our rivers in North Carolina. So far it appears we are winning the battle on access rights but it requires our continuing involvement.

It was a pleasure to speak to each of these paddlers and get a real world view on what they faced to pursue their hobby. To hear the  hoops they had to jump through to enjoy their rivers. While the overall tone of this Part 1 of my dive into Texas whitewater paddling is a pessimistic one, it is evident that the people I spoke to care about their rivers and have enjoyed them despite the challenges. In Part 2, I will be speaking to paddlers who still live in Texas who express hope for paddling their rivers. Within the supportive whitewater community, they have a positive outlook on the future of paddling in Texas.

For those curious about such things, I have two charts comparing how many days in 2026 (as of early September) a selected few Texas runs have reached minimum water level versus a group of runs in central North Carolina.

Notes on Frequency of Running Texas Creeks:

In North Carolina, we have been experiencing one of the worst droughts in about two decades. Because of this, I thought it might be interesting to do a side by side analysis of a few select runs in Central North Carolina, my home region, with those in Texas during an El Niño year, rivers I thought looked interesting from Texas Whitewater, to give a visual of how often people can theoretically paddle rain dependent creeks in the Lone Star State. The visual, perhaps, has some limitations with my methodology including flashes of water level that may be above ideal conditions. Similarly, lowest runnable level is not an indicator of ideal level for a good trip. I set the minimum as my base for the data based on experience with North Carolina and I assume the same would be the case for Texas rivers. There was a large storm system in NC in mid-July that brought very high water on a few rivers, which covers the bulk of runnable days. I included high water since similarly the Haw River in North Carolina spiked to a higher level in August that is runnable by more advanced paddlers, but most would consider this level not ideal. An additional point worth mentioning is some Texas Rivers that might have reached runnable levels at the location of the gage, but specifics on how spring replenishment levels might have had an effect on a run through the whole trip are not considered.