Disclaimer: This document is for entertainment only and is not intended to instruct or educate anyone about anything. If you choose to emulate the stupid things other people do you are on your own, and I take no responsibility for the consequences of your actions.
Trip Report: On the weekend of April 8-9, 2006 I was able to attend the Hidalgo Falls River Festival put on by an interesting group of paddling organizer and agitator types.
Water levels have been particularly low this year leaving Texas paddlers scraping around for something to sink their paddles into.
Fortunately Hidalgo Falls offers up some sort of fun at almost any flow level and the Festival plowed onward despite a somewhat bony main attraction.
I arrived around 10 on Saturday Morning. The first thing I noticed was that the camping area consisted of a nicely trimmed lawn, which was in sharp contrast to the dustbowls that are passed off as camping facilities in many public parks.
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The camping facilities alone were worth the meager $12 entrance fee, and I had already gotten a free shirt and cliff bar when I signed in. A dry shirt and edibles will come in handy to anyone who calls himself a paddler.
The first day I was pretty eager to get my new whitewater canoe in the water, so I didn't take many pictures. Instead I managed to capsize on 3 separate occasions, only one of them being intentional. My last tumble happened in the business of the rapids, which led to my being dragged under my boat for several feet and scoring a massive bruise on my hip bone. Fortunately another canoeist named Kevin was nearby and he retrieved my paddle before helping me bail the water out of my boat. He also kindly pointed out that I was using my leg straps incorrectly, which was the whole reason I was having such a hard time bailing from the boat to begin with. It sure was a relief to discover that my new boat would never be such a pain to bail out of ever again.
The next morning I got up early to snap some pictures of Hidalgo Falls at dawn.
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A cold front had blown in on Friday night and the lower air temperatures yielded a nice morning mist on the river's surface.
At around 10 a large group got in the water for a leisurely 3.5 mile paddle down to the Texas 105 Bridge. When I got back I took my boat to do a little surfing in the upper section of the falls and realized the river had dropped about 6 inches overnight creating a much more interesting play spot.
Realizing what an excellent photo op this place was I decided to cash in some of my paddle time for action shot time. I was lucky enough to find a variety of boat types playing that afternoon, which yielded the following pictures.
Here are a couple of shots of a fellow named Mark surfing a hole in a playboat.
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After that he started side surfing up and down the wave.
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A few moments later Mark displayed good boatsmanship and I guess just great friend-man-ship by paddling to the aid of his beginner friend who had flipped over.
This wee girl seemed to be having a blast running this drop over and over, despite being too wee to wear a proper kayak skirt.
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After that I took a break to check out the tail end of an impromptu gear auction that was being held under a tree in the campground. Here is festival organizer Steve Daniel driving hard bargains to raise money for his favorite cause, TRPA.
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I think I must have mentioned something about a photo op to someone in the campground because when I went back to the upper wave with my camera I had another good selection of interesting subjects displaying their skillzzz.
First up was a gentleman whose name I did not get. He was paddling a slightly longer playboat. Apparently the fun feature of this boat was that its long nose could be used to carve under a wave.
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He was also having loads of side surfing fun, even when faced with an imminent collision with a canoe. Sometimes those rapids have a way of bringing people together.
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Next was Kevin who paddled out and commenced to playing up and down the wave.
Here he can be seen expertly surfing the hole where we saw the small play boat earlier. The canoe seems to fill up the whole much more nicely.
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In the next pair of pictures he can be seen expertly employing a static low brace on his downstream side to keep his balance while side surfing.
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Here we see Kevin paddling on to the top of the wave for some side surfing fun.
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But the wave seems to have other plans and tries to take down the left side of Kevin's canoe. He makes a valiant effort to stay upright with a high brace on his right side.
But alas the river has its way.
Kevin does, however, get mad style points for going for the high brace instead of grabbing his gunwales.
Finally a guy named Craig showed up. He was apparently so excited about playing on the rapid that he decided to forego inflation of the flotation bags on his canoe.
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Craig was actually paddling in a borrowed boat. He commented that the seat extension on it was a little high for him, which explains his relatively amplified paddle strokes. It looks like he was having a blast regardless.
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After taking these pics I was sun burnt in addition to being bruised and sore so it was time to head to Dairy Queen and feed.
In my opinion the 2006 Hidalgo Falls River Festival was an unqualified success. I had a lot of fun and met some great people who taught me things that will likely save my life some day. I will definitely be back for next year's festival.