Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

Don’t leave your good sense or your manners on the shore when you go kayaking.

Oftentimes you’re kayaking in very shallow water, and you think you won’t need a life jacket. But every now and then you can get into a channel or a deep pocket, and if you do happen to flip over…it’s very nice not to be worried about losing your life.

Jim Blackburn is a kayaking enthusiast from Houston. Another kayaking tip: there’s safety in numbers.

Always go with a partner. It’s something very easily enjoyed with a group. And I think that’s the way it should be done.

Blackburn would know. He’s been kayaking for years, and has written a book…

Called the Book of Texas Bays… that has a lot of stories about kayaking…a lot of experiences about kayaking in it.

In addition to being safe while paddling in Texas’ coastal waters, remember others are also enjoying the resource.

If you encounter people that are fishing, you might look at the direction the fisherman is wading, come around behind him… move away from the shoreline…go around the fisherman if they happen to be wading around the shoreline. Sometimes during the winter duck hunting is going on. Over in the Lighthouse Lakes trails there can be duck hunting. You want to make sure you don’t paddle into some decoys.

Download a Canoeing and Kayaking resource guide from passporttotexas.org.

The Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our show, and is funded by your purchase of fishing and equipment and motor boat fuels. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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This is Passport to Texas

I’m uncoordinated, plus I don’t like feeling confined. So the thought of squeezing into a kayak, doesn’t float my boat. But after talking with kayaking enthusiast Jim Blackburn, I realize I have options.

There’s hope for all of you out there that feel uncoordinated and have trouble – sit-on-top kayaks is the way to go.

Blackburn is an environmental attorney and planner in Houston.

These open cockpit kayaks are really – in my opinion – the way to go because they’re so stable and they’re so non-confining. People who have had trouble with kayaks in the past absolutely love them. I have no trouble at all with stability with these sit-on-top kayaks.

The trade off with sit-on-top kayaks is… you get wet.

Water comes up around your bottom when you’re sitting there, so you get wet during the summer. During the winter, we wear waders when we waders when we use these kayaks.

Getting your britches soaked… to get closer to the natural world …is worth it, says Blackburn, who does his kayaking along the Texas coast.

With a kayak, you can glide right on top of water that’s only a few inches deep, and you can get right up on a lot of the birds for sure, and oftentimes can see a lot of the fish as well.

Blackburn has tips and etiquette for Kayakers tomorrow.

Our show’s made possible by the Sport Fish Restoration Program… funded by your purchase of fishing and equipment and motor boat fuels. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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This is Passport to Texas Outdoor Stories

Jim Blackburn—an environmental attorney and planner from Houston—shares one of the more memorable kayaking experiences he has had along the Texas coast.

We were out on Bolivar flats in our kayaks, and there were literally thousands of avocets, which are gorgeous black and white birds with sort of a brownish neck and sort of an upturned bill. They’re wading birds, probably about fourteen-sixteen inches in height. There were literally thousands of them, and they would sort of just rise and fall in a mass. Just the patterns that threes birds made, were just incredible to see. And I’ve just never seen that many avocets in one place.

When you’re on a kayak, says Blackburn, you can get closer to nature than you ever thought possible.

I oftentimes take my kayak to the rookery islands to see the large fish-eating birds – the herons… the egrets… going through their breeding rituals. And then later in the spring raising their young; those are really, really nice experiences.

Download a Canoeing and Kayaking resource guide from our revamped website, passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… made possible by the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program… helping to fund the operations and management of more than 50 wildlife management areas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Outdoor Story: Coastal Kayaking Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

What if I told you the Rio Grande has a class two white water rapid—would you believe me? Would you believe Eric Ellman?

We’ve been leading tours on a class two rapid below Anzalduas Dam that Gary Lacey, who designed the US National Whitewater Training Center in Charlotte North Carolina flew out to take a look at for free, himself, because he could hardly believe it. He believes it is a world class white water park waiting to be built.

Ellman is the Executive director of Los Caminos Del Rio a non profit that preserves and promotes the natural and cultural heritage of the Rio Grande Valley from Laredo to the Gulf of Mexico—and paddling the Rio Grande is one way to bring attention the area, and change attitudes. Building a white water park would be another.

So far the best place we’ve found for a white water park would probably below Anzalduas Dam. There’s already sufficient drop, the water coming out below the dam is cool and clear most of the year, and there’s opportunities to do something even more extravagant, which the IBWC has said would be possible, involving taking off water above the river and creating a water course through the park and putting it back into the river below the dam, thereby obviating any of the cross-border issues that people are generally most concerned about.

The bi-national white water park is currently in discussions. We’ll have updates as they are available.

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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This is Passport to Texas

The Rio Grande Valley and its river are misunderstood, but Eric Ellman, Executive Director of the non-profit Los Caminos Del Rio,is out to change that.

The organization’s focus is on historical and environmental preservation. And we’ve found recently that paddling is a great way to bring people’s attention to the area, and to fundamentally alter the way that they perceive the Rio Grande River and the Rio Grande Valley.

Most of us have an opinion about the Rio Grande, but few of us have actually spent time on it. Yet when we do, Ellman says we are forced to reexamine our preconceptions.

There are all kinds of positive associations to be made with the river. The river is free-flowing, it’s there’s year-round, the weather is warm, the birding is great, we have some of the most historic buildings in the country on either side. We’ve been running trips there and taking literally hundreds of people down there in the last few years and we have never had a single unpleasant incident. And, we really think it’s going to become the wintertime destination for canoe and kayak racing for the entire United States and perhaps northern Mexico.

And Ellman says there’s something you may not know about the Rio Grande River that could surprise you.

Gary Lacey who designed the US National Whitewater Training center could hardly believe it.

And we’ll tell you about it tomorrow.

Until then…That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Paddling the Rio Grande Play Now | Play in Popup | Download