would have been handy on a stretch of river i canoed one time.the guadalupe river down fred's way is a nice river to go down,or was.with all the growth around austin i think it's a conjested river most of the summer,i inner tubed it one time also.the time i canoed it they were releasing water into it out of canyon lake dam.it had a few rapids and the water was fast because of the releasing of water.there were rocks and boulders on the lower stretch where the rapids were.it was in july,and i can say that i didn't know water could be that cold in texas anywhere in july,when we got there about 10 o'clock at night we all had had a few beers and it was warm and the river ran next to our campground,so we jumped in the fast moving water like nuts,i was lucky we didn't it didn't carry me off.
anyhow,a friend and i shared a canoe and didn't have any problems until we got to the faster moving and more turbulent water,we would take on water and have to jump out,turn the canoe over and dump the water and then get back in,then do the same thing about a hundred yards later,that got old fast.then we would have to chase the canoe as the fast moving water carried it away from us.and the water would also carry you with it,i banged my knee on a big rock and the boulders were everywhere as the current carried you down stream,i thought i was going to bust my dang knees up,i kept turning sideways so i would take it on the thigh if i hit one.
i noticed on the way down that some people in the canoes had a big chunk of styrofoam in the middle of their canoes,this kept them from turning over and taking on water like we did,man a kayak would have been handy that day,and if you could catch the river in that condition again it sure would be fun,probably the fall after school starts back up if there has been some good rainfall.