There are three runs I know of on Barton Creek:
Our group of four paddlers put on Barton Creek at SH 71 starting at 08:30 on Saturday morning, November 17, 2001 at a flowrate of 207 cfs. We unloaded near a private road on the southwest side of the intersection of the river and the road, where there is a place to take gear to the river, but no parking. We parked south of there about 1/4 mile on the west side of the road after dropping another vehicle at the crossing on Lost Creek. We took off the river 12 miles later at Lost Creek at 14:15 to a flow of 277 cfs for a total float time (minus one 30 minute lunch) of 5:15. We didn't paddle hard, but the water was moving us most of the time.
It was such a beautiful trip. It's still hard to believe that this is available (when there is water, of course) so close to Austin. This is probably the prettiest stretch of the creek. The middle section has more technical rapids, but I'd not done this particular section before, so we did it while we could.
There were numerous, small winding little turns throughout the trip. The strainers were light and easy, mostly, and there were a couple of slightly bony runs, but easily runnable if you've any adept at all. There are several small portages (5, I think) due to low water crossings, but fairly easy to spot and get around. Port them all on the left side.
We mostly saw sycamore trees along the banks as well as many oak trees. There are nice cliffs running all along the creek, and many springs and runoffs that were still emptying into the creek. There were a couple of turtles that we saw, a dozen or more kingfishers, and a couple of blue herons. One heron watched from within a group of trees as we slowly drifted by from about 20 feet away -- what a great sight to see one up so close. We also startled a couple of pairs of wood ducks that each flew down river away from us, and passed one white duck that hugged the shore, watching anxiously.
Right after we put on the river, there was one large visible house. Then for quite some time, we really didn't see anything. It was splotchy from a house perspective until we got close to the Barton Hills subdivision increasing into Lost Creek. God, what an ugly bridge for Barton Hills. I'm told it hides some structure that holds it together, but it's a concrete skyline eyesore IMHO.
[Joe Riddell added in response:
Just a bit of history: We call that giant bridge the (Ben) Barnes- (John)
Connally Bridge in "honor" of the politicians-turned-developers who
got the county to put it there for their development. They owned (for a while) a
big chunk of land surrounding the original Lost Creek subdivision. Later Jim Bob
Moffit of Barton Creek Properties took over the land development. The outcry
over his attempt to do a deal with the City of Austin to help develop his land
led to the SOS ordinance Austin voters approved in 1992. Barton Hills is the
neighborhood on the east and south side of Barton Creek between Loop 360 and the
pool.]
Two people used the Sevylor Tahiti K79, another the much shorter K67, and I took my new-to-me Genesis dagger (13'), outfitted with airbags. As I'm used to paddling a Mad River Explorer in other Texas rivers, this was a new experience, and I managed to take an unscheduled swim about 90 minutes into the trip. My friends had taken bets on me--without my knowledge, of course--and the guys who started the pool lost (they took the earlier times--nyah, nyah). Plenty of water for all of these boats.
While many beginners could navigate this run at this flow level, the paddler needs to be on the higher end of beginner, closer to intermediate in places or they'll probably get wet quite a bit.
Our group of five seasoned beginner - intermediate paddlers set off from Lost Creek Blvd about 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, 11 July, 2002 (after the AFD ban due to flooding was lifted - FINALLY) with a flow rate of about 350 cfs. Several others were putting on at the same time. We lolly-gagged along for several hours taking several scheduled swims to cool off on such a hot Texas summer day. We took off the river about 5:15 p.m. at Loop 360 take out to a flow rate of about 321 cfs. This stretch of Barton Creek has really nice scenery and some of the best drops on the creek. I took some pictures, but you won't see me in them since I took them all.
While we didn't find much in the way of playholes, we did have several nice small II runs. There were a couple of II+ runs when you hit Sculpture Falls and Twin Falls. There wasn't enough water for me in either to run either of the bigger drops on river left, so we stayed river right on both of those, and another challenge comes at avoiding the swimmers. At Twin Falls, on river right, there is a heck-of-a-left turn you have to make. One of our paddlers didn't make the turn and had an unscheduled swim.
Mostly the scenery is awesome. There are several cliffs running along side the creek and the banks are densely packed with trees and growth. We saw several small springs running. We heard a few canyon wrens and saw one green heron. There weren't very many houses, at least not compared to the run from 360 to Barton Springs. Most beginners would enjoy this if they have basic river running skills giving them a chance to increase their skills a notch.
About a mile after the Mopac bridge which is the first high bridge on this run, you go under the 360 bridge and the takeout is immediately above the next little ripple/drop on river right. The trail heads straight up the hill to the small parking lot outside of the PARD gravel parking lot which was closed due to the trails still being somewhat muddy from the rains.
All in all this is a great run, but I've run it other times in the past at much higher levels around 700-900 cfs where it is a much more romping ride. Beautiful inner-city run in my home town. Not to be missed! All of my buddies were paddling Sevylors of one type or another and I was in my Dagger Genesis, the only open canoe I saw all day. We saw quite a few sit-on-tops and a few standard kayaks. And one tuber putting on just as we left Lost Creek.
page last updated - 11 Jul 2002 23:06:23 -0500