THE LLANO RIVER BELOW JUNCTION, TEXAS LLANO RIVER CAMPGROUND TO YATES CROSSING AT FM 385 Trip report by George Lackey Having lived in dry San Angelo, Texas for more than twenty years I had canoed and kayaked the South Llano River south of Junction, Texas about fifty times because it almost always has a reliable flow and is relatively close to San Angelo.  I had avoided the main Llano River, however, because of all the stories I had heard about it being wide, shallow, and slow.  Furthermore, the river segment from Junction to Yates Crossing at Farm Road 385 was too long for a day trip, i.e., over twenty miles, and provided no practical place to camp overnight.   So, when I recently heard that someone was developing a riverside campground approximately 13 miles downstream from Junction, I decided that I had to see what was down there.  A quick exchange of emails ensued with Joline Moore and Tom Rust, and we all pulled out all the scraps of information we could find on the area.  We quickly decided to see if we could get permission to visit the proposed campground and even launch our kayaks on the river for an exploratory paddling trip down to Yates Crossing. I spoke with Kimberly Murrah, who is a member of the family that owns the Flying “R” Ranch where the campground will be located.  The ranch has a very long expanse of stunningly beautiful riverfront property on the Llano River.  Kimberly was very cordial and invited us to visit the ranch Sunday, March 25, 2006.   On Sunday morning five of us Saturday Paddlers—Joline Moore from San Antonio, Tom Rust from Boerne, Michael Portman from Austin, and George Lackey and David Busker from San Angelo—fueled ourselves with the requisite amount of coffee and fried pies at McDonalds in Junction.  We were apprehensive about the leaden skies and the increasing wind velocities outside, but by the time we headed for our appointment at the ranch the skies had changed to bright sunshine and the wind had developed into a very brisk tailwind that put smiles on all our faces for the rest of the day. We were greeted by Kimberly and her husband, Will, at the ranch gate.   Kimberly and Will are a young, very attractive, and equally enthusiastic couple who welcomed us as if they had known us all their lives.  They gave us an extensive tour of the ranch property and the riverfront in their big diesel powered ranch Suburban.    The area where the campground will be located already has a large existing cabin which is set up for hosting large groups such as family reunions.  It has a big, well-equipped kitchen, indoor sleeping area, and a huge shady porch.  There is a bathroom facility with a shower which serves the entire camp.  The cabin as well as the camping area sit under the dense shade of huge oak trees.  The cabin and campground area overlook the river with its beautiful clear water and wide white gravel beach.  On the opposite side of the river the water squeezes up against a yellow and red cliff.  A short distance away there are tall hills with colorful bluffs to give the whole place a real Hill Country feeling.    We were all in complete agreement that this is a very beautiful place, one that we definitely want to visit again as soon as possible. After our tour of the ranch we took our boats down to an ideal launch site on the beach directly in front of the cabin and headed downstream.   We quickly appreciated the fact that this river segment is one of those Texas rarities; it flows toward the northeast, and the prevailing south winds out there are most often tailwinds!  With the rather brisk wind on that day we paddled the entire 7 ½ miles from the ranch to FM 385 in 3 hours, and that included a fairly leisurely stop for lunch on one of the gravel bars. The river, which was flowing at 96 cfs as measured by the Junction USGS gauge, had sufficient flow for a fun, safe trip.  There were no hazards of any consequence anywhere on the trip at that flow level.   There are enough small Class I rapids to provide a bit of spice, but even beginning paddlers probably wouldn’t have any problems with them.  There are shallow areas from time to time, but we were able to find channels through most of them and did a minimum of scraping in our solo kayaks.  It is necessary to pull boats over the low water bridge at Grobe Crossing, bit it is very easy to do so.  There is a shallow area just below that crossing that is a couple of hundred yards long.  It was in that section that I misjudged the location of the channel and had to get out of my boat and pull it along for about 50 feet in order to get going again.  Typical of Texas rivers, there are long deep pools that would be ideal for fishing or swimming.  With our tailwind, however, we often literally sailed through the pools holding our paddles over our heads to catch the wind.  Of course, the wind does not always blow that much most days. None of our group was an expert on birds, but even we amateurs saw enough to realize that this river is a birdwatcher’s paradise.  We saw wood ducks and other ducks we could not identify, Vermillion Flycatchers, three different types of Kingfishers, Great Blue Herons, Vultures, and many other small birds that we could not identify.  There are enough riverside bluffs so that we heard several Canyon Wrens, but didn’t see them.  We also saw a nesting pair of Red-tailed Hawks who both came out and let us know in no uncertain terms that they did not want us back on their river. All of the members of our group were delighted with every aspect of this exploratory trip and look forward to coming back very soon.  The new access makes the Llano River much more attractive to paddlers than ever before.  The drive from San Antonio is only a little over two hours, and from Austin it is somewhat more than three hours via Fredricksburg.   It would make a great trip to drive to the new campground on Friday night, shuttle to Mason Crossing Saturday morning, and paddle back to your campsite (about 9 miles).  After camping overnight you could paddle on down to Yates Crossing (about 7.5miles) on Sunday, take out and head home.  That way you could have a full weekend with two great days of paddling and two nights of camping.   We plan to put together a Saturday Paddlers weekend trip at the earliest possible date.