The Blanco River is one that you have to catch at the right times because there isn't water there year-round. It's a beautiful river, though, bounded by cypress, fauna, cliffs, and plenty of wildlife. The runs that I have information on are:
On Friday afternoon, 27 July, 2002, we put on the Blanco River below at 5-Mile Dam about 13:30. We originally intended to paddle the river down to Westerfield crossing (CR 266) on the San Marcos River, but by the time we got to Old Martindale Road, it was 18:15 and we didn't figure it to be easy to make it to the original take out by dark and needed to be back in Austin by about 20:00 anyways. We made easily it after one of our party hitched a quick ride from a group of leaving rock-hunters. This run was easily 7-8 miles and we got out to swim a lot and play in several small holes. At each of the river crossings and on some of the private property, there were people fishing and a few swimmers.
There was a fun little hole just below the 5-Mile dam at a set of rapids that set the trip off right. It was fairly easy to get into, but hard to stay. Then there we a couple of small dams and river crossings further down interspersed with a bunch of small rapids. When we went under the train tracks next to 140 a train came through. I hadn't heard a sound like that since my child years.s Just past the railroad is CR 140 where we had to portage. It looked easier to get back into the river on river right, but it put us into a bunch of strainers and we should have been in the left channel. As we approached IH 35, we began to hear the traffic until we left it behind along with a small rapid shortly past it. There were several more small rapids and one more CR crossing to Old Martindale Road.
The flowrate was about 435 cfs and the height 6.6 ft during that time. The rapids were class I-II mainly because of the turns and little strainers here and there. There was one place where it was obvious that someone had used a chainsaw to clear a little bit of the river (thanks).
The water was excellent and very clear since this has been quite some time since the recent floods. You could see to the bottom in many places down to the gravel and carved "wagon-wheel" limestone bead. For the flowrate (about 435 cfs), this is an easy beginner run with a few II rapids and some small surfing holes. With about twice the water, it should yield many more play holes, and Daniel's Texas Whitewater book indicates the same.
This was beautiful scenery aka the San Marcos or Upper Guadalupe, but with a lot fewer houses and plenty of cypress trees. We saw several cliff swallows, green herons, one large blue heron, and some small mouth bass caught by fishers. You could see the fish in the water and carved limestone river bed along with the periodic cliffs were also a nice view. There are a few houses along the river, and at times, you will hear the roads nearby as well as the traffic of IH 35. We didn't see any other paddlers on our trek.
5-Mile Dam Access is through the park in Hays County off of CR 136. The gate to the park was locked up when we got there. There were a couple of fishermen on the banks who'd parked in front of the locked gate. We did the same to unload and then parked the car up the road a ways. Old Martindale Road has a couple of places to park as does Westerfield Crossing (266).
page last updated - 27 Jul 2002 15:51:00 -0500